Poll time!

Great. According to a new PIPA/Knowledge Networks poll:

"Perhaps most relevant politically, perceptions of what the experts are saying are also highly correlated with intentions to vote for the President in the upcoming election. Among those who perceived experts as saying that Iraq had WMD, 72% said they would vote for Bush and 23% said they would vote for Kerry, while among those who perceived experts as saying that Iraq did not have WMD, 23% said they would vote for Bush and 74% for Kerry."

Not making me enthusiastic about the November elections....gonna move to Antarctica now.

Professor MPAA?

From ArsTechnica, the latest program on "teaching" your kids about copyright, courtesy of the MPAA (and a few million dollars from them).

Their motto for the program: "If you don't pay for it, you're stolen it" Never mind things like "fair-use" (trading tapes with friends, parody, critique), or the fact that there are things that are copyrighted but FREE.

As the article points out, would you want your children to learn about health care from the health care industry?

Take that, Bush!

Republicans demand to see Kerry's "questionable" military record. Records released. "Glowing review". Repubs stick foot in mouth. Bush expected to try and trump up his stay-at-home National Guard duty. News at 11.



Update. A briefer summary by Tom Toles of the Washington Post, from Eric.

"Actionable intelligence"

While you're all focused on the declassified memo that Bush and Condi Rice have claimed had no "actionable intelligence"....this one just out from the FBI that never made it to them. Thanks, Mulder/Scully.

"The purpose of this communication is to advise the Bureau and New York of the possibility of a coordinated effort by USAMA BIN LADEN (UBL) to send students to the United States to attend civil aviation universities and colleges. Phoenix has observed an inordinate number of individuals of investigative interest who are attending or who have attended civil aviation universities and colleges in the State of Arizona. "

A good 2 months before 9/11. What a pathetic chain of command we have. NASA suffered from a similar thing when Columbia was destroyed. No one ever talks to their boss. Pathetic.

Political musings, etc.

Still working on the new blog....so it's been a while for updates. Looking forward to integrating this back into the main site. Anyone out there reading it? Anyway, here's a bunch for ya:

• Missed the Bush press conference last night? Here's a *ahem* shorter synopsis for the busy folks, c/o my bud Eric.
  
• Political commentary of the basic problem in this country. The governement won't let people "skin their knees" (i.e. every social service/protection imaginable, and often faulty/failed programs). The first comment on the fark.com discussion thread was inevitably: "And that's why this November, I'm voting Libertarian.". Amen to that.
  
• And finally (again c/o Eric), "no more guessing which spam messages contain stupid prescription drug crap, and which ones contain the good stuff!". FTC now requiring pr0n spam to be labeled as such.
  

Back to whatever you were doing now.

"Onshoring"?

Gee, you mean offshoring jobs isn't the answer to everything? Oh, my heart weeps. NOT.

Wesley Bertch admits he fell for offshore outsourcing "hook, line and sinker." So when Bertch, chief techie for Minneapolis-based Life Time Fitness, a health club chain, needed software to evaluate potential new locations for gyms late last year, he looked overseas where he could pay $6 an hour instead of $60 for programmers. He hired a large, reputable Indian outsourcing firm a few months ago, then sat back and watched his troubles mount. Not only did the offshore team produce code that was full of bugs, they ran up big bills working overtime to fix their mistakes. Bertch finally canned the offshore contractors, hired several local programmers and started preaching to industry colleagues that managing such projects across oceans is doomed to failure. His biggest surprise? "I've since talked to scores of my peers, and we are all singing from the same hymn book," Bertch says.

Trifecta! Beer, sex, and video games.

Apparently surgeons who play video games are better during surgery. The trio is complete. Beer, sex, and video games are all now GOOD FOR YOU! My goal is to now be the healthiest person alive...heh. The posts on the fark.com thread are great:

Who knew blowing people in half with the Flak cannon might help save lives?
...
scalpel?
scalpel.
swab?
swab.
forceps?
forceps.
sniper rifle?

Game on!

Quotes(s) of the day...

Yep. Still working on the new journal. Meantime, some quotes to tickle your political funny-bone:

"I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war."
-George W. Bush, October 11, 2000

"We meet here during a crucial period in the history of our nation, and of the civilized world. Part of that history was written by others; the rest will be written by us ... Rebuilding Iraq will require a sustained commitment from many nations, including our own: we will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more."
-George W. Bush, February 26, 2003