Events

Microsoft has suspended at least 1,000 contracts with developers for a week, just like (*snap*) that: Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos said Monday that Microsoft told vendors who supply the contractors that about 1,000 workers globally would not be needed this week. The vendors, whose workers do software development for Microsoft, also were told to schedule two other days off, Gellos said. Gellos also said the decision was unrelated to a move, announced late last week, to offer new perks to its Redmond...

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne writes today about Sen. James Inhofe's (R-OK) asinine English Language amendment: There is no point to this amendment except to say to members of our currently large Spanish-speaking population that they will be legally and formally disrespected in a way that earlier generations of immigrants from—this is just a partial list—Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, France, Hungary, Greece, China, Japan, Finland, Lithuania, Lebanon, Syria, Bohemia, Slovakia...

A while ago Anne and I heard an NPR story about East St. Louis, Ill., that mentioned Police Chief Mister and Mayor Officer. Then this morning NHPR referred to a Manchester, N.H., Police Captain Dick Tracy. Now the Chicago Tribune reports on an Illinois State Police Capt. Negro, who no doubt is best friends with Chicago Police Lt. Honkey. Is there someone out there making up names for public officials? Perhaps inspired by Catch 22's Major Major? Weird.

Montenegro has voted to secede from Serbia: With 95% of the votes counted from Sunday's referendum in Montenegro, on independence from Serbia, 55.4% of voters were in favour of the break. It is possible, but unlikely, that the few votes still to be counted will change this. The much more likely prospect is that Serbia and Montenegro will negotiate their divorce in the weeks and months ahead. Montenegro's prime minister will visit Brussels next week to formally request recognition from the European...

A fast-moving storm system blew through Southern New Hampshire yesterday, dropping pea-sized hail and buckets of rain. I watched it from the Peddler's Daughter in Nashua. I noticed what I thought was a wall cloud, but seeing no rotation I disregarded it. It turned out I may have been right, because several people reported a tornado and water spouts touching down northeast of me: As the storm arrived, observers a few miles north on Ocean Boulevard in Hampton saw a strange, wedge-shaped cloud. It was not...

I may have opined on this subject earlier, but here follows my prediction, with which people may ridicule me in three years: In approximately 974 days and 15 hours, we will see the inagurations of President Gore and Vice President Warner. I believe I am making this prediction with considerably more evidence than Shrub made his prediction that democracy would flourish in Iraq within the same time-frame.

My accountant, whom I always considered to be a nice person and free of malice, sent this to me this morning: A Good Pun Is Its Own Re-Word Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery. A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative. Practice safe eating - always use condiments. A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother. Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death. I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded. Marriage is the mourning after the knot before. A hangover is the...

I took a quick trip up to Kennebunk, Maine, and then to Portsmouth, N.H., yesterday. In Kennebunk I found the Wedding Cake House, constructed (legend has it) by a sea captain who was forced to put to sea during his wedding: And Portsmouth is just plain charming:

Excellent column by Bruce Schneier: A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien to the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to call out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the nobility of their being and their cause. Of course being watched in your own home was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You watched convicted criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own home....

Direct Democracy has a wonderful pair of maps showing, shall I say, a subtle change in political colors since the 2004 election. For those keeping score at home, there are only 171 days and 22 hours until the 2006 election.