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Friday, September 24, 2004 |
First Genesis Samples Shipped Out
First Genesis Samples Shipped Out: "NASA scientists picking through the wreckage of Genesis' capsule have shipped off the first sample to the University of California, Berkeley for further analysis. These samples were attached to the interior lid of the capsule - its "lid foils" - and the scientists think they'll be able to recover 75-80% of this material. The next challenge are the four collector arrays which were fairly damaged, but some large pieces have been recovered."
(Via Universe Today.)
10:16:07 PM Permalink
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Cheney's "Major League" Flip-Flop on Iraq
Cheney's "Major League" Flip-Flop on Iraq: "If we had a real media, we would have heard about this... We don't.
DICK CHENEY, SEATTLE WASHINGTON, 8/14/92:
"And the final point that I think needs to be made is this question of
casualties. I don't think you could have done all of that without
significant additional US casualties. And while everybody was tremendously
impressed with the low cost of the conflict, for the 146 Americans who
were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war. And
the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is
Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it
right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the
President made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were
not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and
govern Iraq." [Cheney Remarks to the Discovery Institute, Seattle, WA,
8/14/92] "
(Via Oliver Willis - Like Kryptonite To Stupid.)
7:01:27 PM Permalink
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TURNS OUT THOSE SCHOOLS IN TEXAS AREN'T SO HOT AFTER ALL
TURNS OUT THOSE SCHOOLS IN TEXAS AREN'T SO HOT AFTER ALL: "
MELISSA ZAMORA, BROWNSVILLE HERALD - Universities with an open-enrollment policy have an obligation to accept all students regardless of remediation required, said Raymund A. Paredes, commissioner of Higher Education at the Texas Higher Education Coordination Board. . . Paredes visited Thursday with The Brownsville Herald editorial board to spread the word about the “Closing the Gaps Initiative” of the THEC, an initiative whose main goal is to increase Texas higher education enrollment by 500,000 students by the year 2015. . . According to Paredes there were several deciding factors in the creation of the Initiative. Texas dropout rates are higher than the nation’s average and the state has lower college enrollment and completion rates than other states. “We asked ourselves: ‘What do we need to do to come to par with other states?’ That’s where the initiative came about,” he said.
"
(Via UNDERNEWS.)
5:50:03 PM Permalink
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Did Dubya Crash A Plane?
From Discourse.net: I have no idea if this story that Lt. GW Bush was grounded for cowardice is true. I have no idea how you would tell.
The story, unlike the one by Swift Boat Vets for Lies, has the merit of being consistent with much of the documentary evidence. (I would have expected to see something about this in the medical section of his file? Is this why he didn’t report for they physical, because they planned psychological tests?) It may also explain why GW Bush has never produced his separation codes.
But there’s no way to tell now, I’d wager.
One thing is for sure: even though it is more plausible than the Swift Vets’ tall tale, this story will never get one one-hundreth of the media play.
4:51:46 PM Permalink
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Who would the terrorists vote for?
Who would the terrorists vote for?: "Today's must-read comes by way of the incomparable Dana Milbank, who noted that Republican arguments that Kerry and the Dems "are giving comfort to terrorists and undermining the war in Iraq" are pushing the boundaries of what has generally been considered acceptable political rhetoric. Appearing in the Rose Garden yesterday with Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, Bush said Kerry's statements about Iraq "can embolden an enemy." After Kerry criticized Allawi's speech to Congress, Vice President Cheney tore into the Democratic nominee, calling him "destructive" to the effort in Iraq..."
(Via The Carpetbagger Report.)
And if you vote for Bush this year, you're condoning the lowest campaign tactics in recent American history.
1:24:18 PM Permalink
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RNC admits to Bible-ban smear
RNC admits to Bible-ban smear: "The most disturbing piece of direct mail I've ever seen -- which claims that "liberals" want to "ban" the Bible -- was, in fact, a product of the Republican National Committee. The Republican Party acknowledged yesterday sending mass mailings to residents of two states warning that "liberals" seek to ban the Bible. It said the mailings were part of its effort to mobilize religious voters for President Bush. The mailings include images of the Bible labeled "banned" and of a gay marriage proposal labeled "allowed." A mailing to Arkansas residents..."
(Via The Carpetbagger Report.)
1:02:32 PM Permalink
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Congress Extends Tax Cuts, Passes Along Costs
Congress Extends Tax Cuts, Passes Along Costs: "Congress extends $146 billion worth of popular, middle-class tax cuts and adds the cost onto future federal budget deficits. The cuts were scheduled to expire at the end of this year. Some lawmakers say the fiscal implications of the tax cuts are overshadowed by election-year politics. Hear NPR's Andrea Seabrook."
(Via NPR News: Nation.)
It's the "passes along tax cuts" that's the key. Our kids and grandkids are going to be paying for decades, so Dubya and the Republican House and Senate can try to get re-elected this year.
12:59:42 PM Permalink
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Waiting... so some software comments
Ouch, but a basic home DSL connection can get filled quickly. Right now I'm uplaoding 3.5GB of jpegs from one of my machines to a server. On another machine I'm uploading a 25MB (zipped) MySQL file. I know they're going to take a while. Happily the blog is on UserLand servers, and these posts are small. So I have some time to kill waiting for the SQL file to finish. So time to write about a couple of things.
First, there's the new NetNewsWire public beta. I started using this Mac app a few months ago to read my news sources, switching from Radio UserLand. While there's a lot to like about Radio, I found that it was getting unmanageable. I have a lot of subscriptions, so with its browser-based reverse-chronological approach, it was hard to read a specific feed, to just catch up on one topic or source. So I gave NetNewsWire Lite a try, and really liked it. Then I heard that 2.0 was coming, and that it would be a free upgrade, so I ponied up and have been very happy with the thing. I haven't looked at a lot of the 3-pane newsreaders in a while, but this one really feels comfortable, with a lot of fit and finish. It is Mac only, which is a nuisance, and I'm bi in this regard. One thing I liked about Radio was that I could stick the radio app on a spare machine, and connect to that machine by browser from any other machine; this leaves me tied to the old iMac. But 2.0 does have a sync feature which I haven't investigated, so maybe it'll help me there, too. If you're a Mac user, I highly recommend that you give NetNewsWire a try. It's really fun to use.
Another Mac app that just received a big upgrade is BBEdit. BBEdit has been a great editor forever, and this 8.0 release is fantastic. I've only touched the surface of its features so far, but for some reason this version is pulling me to the Mac, too. I usually edit code on Windows using TextPad, Komodo, or DreamWeaver. BBEdit's better than any of those, even DreamWeaver (I don't much care for DreamWeaver on the Mac, maybe because I have a 15: monitor), and even without the debugging features of Komodo. Lots to like in BBEdit. Later today I need to run a search and replace across a few dozen HTML files, and I'm actually kind of looking forward to doing it, and seeing if the new Text Factories can help.
I've mentioned this before, but the one class of application that seems poorly represented on the Mac is a SQL editor. My favorite for the PC is SQLyog. I like its large edit space for SQL code -- the one feature that virtually every Mac SQL editor I've seen ignores. It's as if they expect you to spend all your time designing tables, and none of it writing code. I don't get it. The SQLyog folk are promising a Mac version, but no sign of it yet. I know I'll pony up as soon as it appears, and maybe then I'll just pretty much abandon Windows. (I also like Toad for Windows, which I used recently for an Oracle project, but there's no sign of a Mac version at all.)
All in all, OS X is really starting to hit its stride, and there's some exciting stuff around. QuickSilver is an amazing keyboard utility for find lots of stuff. Clutter looks like a great way to make a big mess of the desktop -- I can't wait to try it!
On a different note, now I know why Shasta's such a big fan of her.
12:53:25 PM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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