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Project Insomnia

Project Insomnia is many things, but in this context it is simply a "braindump" of whatever I happen to be thinking/reading/watching/doing at the moment. Parental guidance suggested.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Perhaps we should get our own house in order before leveling criticism?

Apparently the United States is not the only country who can't manage to hold an honest presidential election, according to this SFGate/NYTimes article:
The United States declared the results of the presidential election in Belarus invalid on Monday and called for a new race, even as President Alexander Lukashenko defiantly swept aside criticism and declared himself the winner of a third term.

'The United States does not accept the results of the election,' said Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman. 'We support the call for a new election.'
Even putting aside the natural inclination to disregard any pronouncements of Scott McClellan, it seems outrageous for a country which has had two successive widely-disputed presidential elections to make public pronouncements of how shocked, shocked we are that another country would have similar problems.

I wonder what crooked voting machines Belarus is using?
|| Andrew, 9:58 AM || || link

The Bay Bridge Saga: The Story So Far

Chronicle Urban Design writer John King has an excellent history of the Bay Bridge eastern span saga, from the Loma Prieta quake of 1989 to present:
When state officials open construction bids on Wednesday to build the tower for the new eastern half of the Bay Bridge, the target date to finish work will be 2013 -- 24 years after the Loma Prieta earthquake snapped the upper deck apart.

Instead of an earthquake-proof bridge ready for traffic in 2004 as first promised, what exists today is a half-finished project that stands as a symbol of the Bay Area's political inability to come together as a region even when lives and livelihoods are at risk.
I was in Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC when the quake hit, and didn't even know about it until days later when I managed to catch a glimpse of a newspaper headline. This article gives a clear and unbiased history of the difficulties involved in negotiating, designing, and actually building the new span of the Bay Bridge.
|| Andrew, 9:53 AM || || link

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

It's not easy being green

themuppetmatrix re-imagines the original Matrix trailer with the intriguing question: What is the Muppet Matrix?
|| Andrew, 10:29 AM || || link

Monday, March 06, 2006

So Long, Woody

Pitcher Kirk Rueter Retires:
Kirk Rueter retired Monday, ending a 13-year major league career during which he became the winningest left-handed pitcher in San Francisco Giants history.

Rueter finished with a 130-92 record and a 4.27 ERA. He won 105 games after joining the Giants near the end of the 1996 season, surpassing Mike McCormick last year as the winningest lefty in San Francisco history.
It's a sad day in Giants history. But an honest look at Rueter's performance over the last two or three years shows that the team needed to take some action. Good to read that after the difficult time last year that there are apparently no hard feelings, and that he will be honored at a home game this year.
|| Andrew, 2:50 PM || || link

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

February 2006 books

  1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency -- Douglas Adams, New Millennium Audio (unabridged, read by author), 2001

  2. Midas World -- Frederik Pohl, Tor, 1984

  3. Narabedla, Ltd. -- Frederik Pohl, Random House, 1989

  4. Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions -- Lisa Randall, HarperCollins Publishers, 2005


January 2006 books
|| Andrew, 9:09 AM || || link

Brilliant

Why didn't anyone think of Functional redesign of the wall electrical outletthis before now?
The concept is simple – the new wall outlets have receptacles that rotate a full 360 degrees in both directions. The receptacles click and hold in 18 different positions, enabling you to find a way to plug in those big fat problem plugs without eclipsing the next outlet.
I want about ten of them for our house.
|| Andrew, 9:08 AM || || link

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