Events

Excellent. I hope she takes them for millions, because in the immortal words of Billy Ray Valentine: "You know, it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people." The Washington Post also has the story: In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of revealing Plame's CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush...

The President (922 days, 4 hours remaining) still has not yet appointed an Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Cyberterrorism, despite computer security problems up the ying since before the post was created: Critics say the year-long vacancy is further evidence that the administration is no better prepared for responding to a major cyber-attack than it was for dealing with Hurricane Katrina, leaving vulnerable the information systems that support large portions of the economy, from...

I love that the first hurricane of the Eastern Pacific season this year is named "Bud."

This is too funny, and too sad: It reads like a tally of terrorist targets that a child might have written: Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, the Amish Country Popcorn factory, the Mule Day Parade, the Sweetwater Flea Market and an unspecified "Beach at End of a Street." The National Asset Database, as it is known, is so flawed, the inspector general found, that as of January, Indiana, with 8,591 potential terrorist targets, had 50 percent more listed sites than New York (5,687) and more than twice as many...

I've spent the past few days drafting an analysis of my business. It turns out to be a lot harder than writing software. That is all.

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is."—Jan L.A. Van De Snepscheut

The designer that I've hired a few times for Inner Drive projects will be on VH-1's World Series of Pop Culture tomorrow night. If she's as knowledgeable about pop culture as she is about XHTML, her team should kick butt.

The New York Times on Tuesday ran an excellent summary (sub.req.) of what we know about global climate change. Strange that they put it in the Opinion section. Also, a thought cheered me this morning: throughout history, political groups have always seemed strongest right before collapsing. I believe there is a correlation between effots to appear strong and a loss of true strength. I'll have to think about this some more.

At the moment, I'm experiencing the weather of Chicago's future. I'm sitting outside at a St. Louis Bread Co. (aka Panera) in St. Louis while Anne does a 10 km (6 mi) run at Forest Park. The temperature has risen 2.8°C (5°F) in the past hour and promises to rise another 5°C (9°F) in the next two. It should hit 32°C (90°F) today, as it does most days in the summer down here, with the possibility of cooling down to 27°C (80°F) by bedtime. St. Louis is warmer than Chicago, and will probably always be. But...

I think smacking Ann Coulter because of plagiarism is almost the same as getting rid of Al Capone because of tax evasion. It rather misses the point, and it takes her way, way too seriously. Better: let's all ignore her, the way we would ignore any other clown or annoying child. Commenting on Coulter wastes air. Figuring out what she plagiarised wastes time. Paying any attention to her at all wastes brain cells, and has the unwelcome side-effect of making her seem worth the trouble.