Spin Cycle

Miers withdraws high court nomination

Um, did Miers nominate herself? No, I believe President Bush nominated her. Isn't it his place to withdraw the nomination?

This is awesome

Excerpts from FEMA officials' e-mails

_Bahamonde to FEMA Director Michael Brown, Aug. 31, 11:20 a.m.

"Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical. Here some things you might not know.

Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes.

The dying patients at the DMAT tent being medivac. Estimates are many will die within hours. Evacuation in process. Plans developing for dome evacuation but hotel situation adding to problem. We are out of food and running out of water at the dome, plans in works to address the critical need.

_Sharon Worthy, Brown's press secretary, to Cindy Taylor, FEMA deputy director of public affairs, and others, Aug. 31, 2 p.m.

"Also, it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner. Gievn (sic) that Baton Rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes. We now have traffic to encounter to get to and from a location of his choise (sic), followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc.

_Bahamonde to Taylor and Michael Widomski, public affairs, Aug. 31, 2:44 p.m.

"OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! No won't go any further, too easy of a target. Just tell her that I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy restaurants. Maybe tonight I will have time to move my pebbles on the parking garage floor so they don't stab me in the back while I try to sleep.

Spam Is So Weird

Every so often some spam slips through the filter into my inbox. Seriously, I think they must have a room full of crazy people somewhere writing these. You can't make this stuff up.

Also, notice the spam probability is 99% -- why is this in my inbox?

Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:32:35 +0200
From: "Schulz"
Message-ID: <38618.70xc.eu37d.jd7DLJIE44@sobao.com>
To: 20jqian@ECE.NEU.EDU
Subject: D3grees Based On Your Knowlege
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Perlmx-Spam: Gauge=XXXXXXXXXIIIIIIIII, Probability=99%, Report='RCVD_IN_SPAMCOP_NET! 0, KNOWN_SPAM_PARAGRAPH 8, OBFU_CLASS_FINANCIAL_LOW 3, RCVD_IN_CBL 3, CTYPE_JUST_HTML 0.848, __C230066_P1_2 0, __CT 0, __CTE 0, __CTYPE_CHARSET_QUOTED 0, __CTYPE_IS_HTML 0, __HAS_MSGID 0, __MIME_HTML 0, __MIME_HTML_ONLY 0, __MIME_VERSION 0, __RATWARE_SIGNATURE_3_N1 0, __SANE_MSGID 0, __TAG_EXISTS_HTML 0'




yo brother,

tell mom i did it finally , i tried this program i seen online and got my Masters in 2 weeks! No Study Required! 1_0_0_% Verifiable!



The opporrtu,nity exists due to a legal loophole allowing some established
colleges to award degrees at their dis.cretion.


i gave you the # the other day but if you lost it here it is again,



1-.2.0.6.-203-1217

they are still offering the B.A. B.S_C M.A M_S.C M.B_A P_H.D

Hurry the counselor said they aren't taking many more students for this
offer..




Tell mom i want a party :)



love ya see ya soon


your bro,
















i need to get a pedicure. my feet smell and itch.

You know, for the last few months, John's been traveling around the country talking about his positive, optimistic vision for America, talking about his plan to move this country in the right direction..

The science teachers practiced fighting..

Tell me when you have loved singing..

Wasn't Dick missing talking on the street?.

Were those pilots practicing praying?.

Were those farmers practicing shouting next to the police station?.

The musicians have missed playing since a few days ago..

But, I spent the next three weeks making a piece of simple software for her son to her specifications. While I was at it, I put 4-8 pictures on the screen as well. The simple program was finished and ready for her child to see. As I was presenting it, the other children in my classroom were pushing each other to get to the computer screen to touch that Touch Window and hear the word spoken again and again. I looked at these kids and was amazed. There was no music, no animation, nothing cute about this program at all, just real pictures with real words. I was stunned. I just watched the children. Within 10 minutes, several children who had never said a word in their life, made approximations of several words. I was hooked..

Cathy hasn't practiced reading yet..

AUDIENCE: Yes..

I didn't dislike cooking at home..

i need to get a pedicure. my feet smell and itch.

Were those farmers practicing shouting next to the police station?.

You are always missing reading..

tomorrow i will wash my hair and go to the salon.

Is the scientist missing praying?.

Doesn't Sarah remember shouting slowly?.

EDWARDS: ... more negative attacks -- aren't you sick of it?.

I hate playing quickly..

Those bus drivers aren't missing praying on the street just now..

13. Ninety six bottles of beer, three a's, three b's, one c, two d's, thirty two e's, six f's, two g's, six h's, twelve i's, one j, one k, five l's, one m, eighteen n's, fourteen o's, one p, six r's, twenty seven s's, twenty t's, two u's, seven v's, nine w's, five x's, and five y's on the wall..

today i need to goto the store. .

The science teachers practiced fighting..

Walking Wounded

Big hole too much to overcome

They played the Broncos without Corey Dillon, Matt Light, Tyrone Poole, Troy Brown, Richard Seymour, Marquise Hill, Guss Scott and Kevin Faulk. Rookie James Sanders, filling in for Rodney Harrison and Scott, couldn't finish the game because of leg injury. In the backfield, Tom Brady was handing off to Patrick Pass and Amos Zereoue, who just joined the team. Arturo Freeman was signed last week and finished the game at safety.

The Patriots don't have enough healthy defensive linemen for a 4-3 or a 3-4. Vrabel played his first full game at inside linebacker -- ever. Linebackers Willie McGinest and Monty Beisel played the game wearing casts to protect broken bones in their hands.

Before the season, I thought the biggest losses the Patriots would feel would be Charlie Weiss and Romeo Crennel (under Weiss, Notre Dame's only losses have come in overtime against #22 Michigan State and in a barn burner against the reining champs, #1 USC). The Patriots' success has come as the result of smart coaching and the ability to plug holes and get adequate performances from replacement players.

After the win at Pittsburgh, everyone wanted to know when the raft of injuries would finally catch up to the Patriots. Well since then they got pasted by the Chargers, barely beat a Vick-less Falcons team, and then were dominated by a clearly superior Broncos squad. The injuries have caught up.

The way things are going, I would consider it a moral victory if the Pats can finish the season 8-8. The crazy thing is that could be enough to get into the playoffs. Consider the competition:

• The Bills are on a winning streak, but look who they've beat: Miami and the Jets. Plus, their coach is named Mike Mularkey.
  
  
• Although Miami beat two teams that beat the Pats (Denver, Carolina), they've also lost to the Jets and Buffalo. Their best player doesn't want to be playing.
  
  
• The Jets have a good program, but they've suffered losses arguably greater than the Patriots', losing not one but two quarterbacks.
  

The Pats have a much needed bye week coming up, and all their division games remaining. If they can get some guys back on the playing field, they might still be able to salvage a winning season and a playoff berth.

Can You Hear Us Now?

Lawmakers Debate Cell Phone Rights Bill

For some time now I've been railing against the industry-wide practice of requiring two-year agreements for cell phone service. I've just endured two years of hellacious customer "service" with Sprint, and I would love to give them the big kiss-off. Problem is, any new company I choose is going to require a two-year agreement. I'm afraid I may be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Finally there is talk of legislation to change this practice. Frankly I'm surprised it was ever tolerated in the first place. The legislation proposes limiting contracts to one year, but I'm in favor of having no contracts at all. I never had a contract for my home phone service. I don't have a contract for my cable and internet service. If I fail to pay my bill, they stop providing the service. It seems pretty damn simple, and it's always worked in the past.

Of course, if I hadn't experienced such infuriatingly incompetent service, I probably never would have given the contract a second thought. The industry is arguing that "regulation isn't necessary because the industry is so competitive it has to adjust to consumer demands." Well, that may keep prices competitive but it won't do me any good if I sign a contract with Verizon only to find out they've just hired the same quality of idiot to handle my account.

Seriously, how is it that the cell phone industry got this arrangement, when no other service industry requires a signed contract? (Gym memberships are the exception that proves the rule.) If anyone has any ideas for how we can correct this insanity, please let me know.

Book Review: Night Fall

I have no strong desire to join the sea of conspiracy blogs out there -- here's a good one -- so I'm posting this rant in the guise of a book review. Night Fall is a fictional account of the circumstances and events surrounding the crash of Flight TWA 800 in the summer of 1996. This flight took off from JFK airport bound for Paris, but shortly after takeoff it crashed off the coast of Long Island. The official investigation concluded that an electrical short ignited vapors in the center fuel tank, causing an explosion which tore the plane apart.

The popular conspiracy theory posits that the plane was shot down by a missile fired from a US Navy vessel. It is this theory which the author, Nelson DeMille, explores in his novel. I was bemused to discover that the novel is narrated in the first person, using that cheesy private eye macho-speak. Once I got past that, however, I found it to be a compelling, well-paced detective story. The plot revolves around a race to uncover a video tape which would presumably provide incontrovertible evidence of what really caused the crash. Although this video tape is purely a work of fiction, the author includes a variety of supporting evidence which has been reported by a number of independent sources.

In my opinion, these are the three key points, all of which, to the best of my knowledge, are true:

1. The Navy was conducting exercises that night, with several ships and submarines directly in the path of the ill-fated flight.

2. Hundreds of witnesses reported seeing a flash of light rising from the surface of the ocean toward the plane prior to the explosion.

3. No other 747's were grounded following the crash and consequent NTSB investigation.

The first two points are circumstantial, and serve only to hint at a possible alternative to the official explanation. The third point is the one that really causes the official explanation to stick in my craw. I think that most people, upon hearing the official explanation, thought, "Oh, an electrical short ignited vapors in the center fuel tank. Well, that would certainly cause an explosion, so that must be what happened." As an engineer (or maybe just a reasonable, free-thinker) my first thought was, "Did you think it was a good idea to put electrical wires in the fuel tank?!" In point of fact, I seriously doubt that Boeing engineers did put wires in the fuel tank. Or if they had, surely after the crash they would have realized their galactically stupid mistake, and grounded all affected planes for a retrofit. But no planes were ever grounded. To me that says there never was a design flaw, ergo the official story is bullshit.

Mr. DeMille and countless bloggers agree.

Night Fall by Nelson DeMille, 2004

I swear I'm not trying to turn this into a conspiracy blog, but ask me sometime about Flight UA 93.