Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Decorated WWII veteran detained, searched at airport
Retired Gen. Joe Foss, 86, one of the most highly decorated U.S. war veterans, recently was detained at a security checkpoint at the Phoenix, Arizona, airport because he was carrying an item with sharp edges. The sharp object turned out to be the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he had received in 1943 from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
My wife thought I would find this story amusing...
The Voucher Debate and the Failure of Federal Education
The Supreme Court heard arguments last week in the now- infamous Cleveland school vouchers case. At issue, at least in the Cleveland case, is whether publicly-funded vouchers can be used by children attending private and parochial schools. While the court will focus on the tenuous argument that aseparation of church and staterenders vouchers unconstitutional, the larger issue for all of us is whether the federal education system needs to be scrapped. After all, if centralized Washington control of education was working, parents wouldn't be clamoring for vouchers in the first place.
RIAA Almost Down To Pre-Napster Revenues
Third time's the charm. Napster came out in 1999, and the Recording Industry Association of America had two great revenue statements for that year and the next. But now that CD sales finally are down year-to-year, at long last they get the chance to blame Napster for their woes. There's just one thing wrong ... they don't have Napster to kick around anymore.
Digital Security Fomenting a Feud
Intel, which will testify on Thursday, said that Hollings' SSSCA approach is far too regulatory.We don't think government-mandated technology solutions are in the best interests of consumers or anyone else, said Intel spokeswoman Sue Richard.
Discussion at Slashdot.
Bombing at FAA
As military fighter jets rain bombs on Afghanistan, Americans still do not know if the White House is truly keeping passenger planes from becoming bombs. The latest reminder came this week from Bogdan Dzakovic, a special agent of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Romancing the molecule
Yet amid the many impressive pieces of memorabilia in Watson's office, there is at least one item unlikely to be found in any other office of anyone great and famous: the 2002 Anna Kournikova wall calendar. More curious than the presence of the bombshell tennis player's calendar is that its being there is pertinent to Watson's greatness and fame. For it's indicative of a brashness, a friskiness, an absolute commitment to going his own way - and an ability to get away with doing so. As he says with a broad smile,I couldn't hang that there if I was at Harvard.
Watson has a new book out: Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix
Crunchtime in Waltham
In the next few days, the Hunter Group, a hospital consulting firm, will report to CareGroup on whether the plan cobbled together by the Waltham doctors, developer Roy MacDowell, and New England Medical Center is workable. If the answer is no, the hospital is probably dead.
Historic cannon takes a holiday in Boston
Dragged 250 miles from New York and mounted atop Dorchester Heights in South Boston in 1776, nearly 50 cannons capable of hurling fire a mile made British General Thomas Gage quake - so much so that he ordered the evacuation from Boston of his 11,000 redcoats.
Ominously, Afghan poppies return
Afghans, aware that their fragile new government is unable to enforce a ban on poppy cultivation, are poised to flood the world market this spring with near-record supplies of opium, UN specialists and international law enforcement officials warned yesterday.
In other news, interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai was heard to remark, Thank Allah for those Americans and their war on drugs. What else could make a weed that grows in the desert so valuable!
Report: Fiscal woes for T
The MBTA cannot afford to pay for billions of dollars of expansion projects, including the rail link between North and South stations, without neglecting badly needed maintenance and modernization projects, according to a report released yesterday.
It seems to me that capital projects ought to be considered separately from regular operating costs.
