Katrina caught alot of people by surpise

I'll be the first to admit it. When Katrina was approaching Florida I wan't too worried about it... It looked like it would make landfall North of Miami and be barely a Category 1... But then it shifted South and that's when all hell started to break loose. It quickly progressed to a Category 5 hurricane before (thankfully) lessening into a Category 4. New Orleans was lucky that the storm didn't hit 15 miles west because if it had we would be talking about a completely wiped out city. Had that happened Katrina might have been the worst natural disaster since Pompeii erupted and buried a city. As it is the coast of Mississippi has been wiped clean and New Orleans is still flooded.

Gulfport and Biloxi appear to have born the brunt of the damage. The casinos in Gulfport have, in some cases, dissappeared. The Grand broke loose and floated down the ocean and is reported as a complete loss. Debris is piled up along the coast as high as 15 feet and there are reportedly some small towns that just don't exist anymore. Highway 90 is wrecked and the Red Cross has said that this will be their largest humanitarian mobilization ever and that it compares to all of last years hurricanes occuring simultaneously.

The effects were felt far inland as well. Tornadoes created by the storm winding down were seen to the east of Atlanta and flooding has been reported in parts of Tennessee.

I suspect that we'll hear alot more in the days to come... I'm going to make a donation at www.redcross.org (as soon as the site isn't slammed by traffic) and I encourage everyone else to as well.

Fantasy Football starting... woooooohooooo!!

For those of us that are football fans it's been a long, slow summer. Next week starts the football season and with it the glory that is fantasy football. I'm playing in two leagues right now (a 6 person and a 16 person) so I've got two games tomorrow.

My 16 team league I have a pretty dynamite team I think and my first opponent should be a bit of a cake walk:

Plummer        Palmer
Horn              Boldin
Porter            Jenkins
Alexander      R. Johnson
Arrington        K. Jones
Cooley           Witten
Lindell            Mare
San Diego      Minnesota

I think I've got a better player at every position except TE...

In my other league I'm playing my wife so a loss would be devastating to my manhood

Collins           McNabb
Harrison         C. Johnson
Ward              Boldin
Moulds           Chambers
Tomlinson       Alexander
Dillon             McGahee
Heap             Witten
Graham          Akers
Baltimore        Tampa Bay

That's alot closer lineup and the matchups that I'm facing aren't that great (Harrison is up against Baltimore and Collins against New England... I do have Dillon against the Raiders though so that's pretty good)...

Should make for a very interesting week...

So you think you can do statistics...

Wednesday there was a bit of a minor controversy/surprise when 3
couples managed to have duplicative pairings from the previous week.
The contestants were shocked, the head judge was shocked... everyone
seemed surprised... well, they shouldn't be...

With 7 couples (1 couple had already been eliminated) the odds are
actually pretty easy to calculate.

0 repeat couples - 36.79%
1 repeat couple - 36.81%
2 repeat couples - 18.33%
3 repeat couples - 6.25%
4 repeat couples - 1.39%
5 or 7 repeat couples - .44%

The average result would have been one repeat couple and while the
odds of having 3 repeat couples was "only" 6.25% most would say that
any event that occurs 1 out of every 16 times is an occurence that you
shouldn't be "shocked" by. Just wanted to put that in perspective.

Poet Sienna Rose?!?

Only a woman named Soleil Moon Frye could name a kid Poet Sienna Rose. I love the tendency of stars to name their children ridiculous names. The whole Phoenix family is a prime example. When you read the article you actually find that the poor child's full name is Poet Sienna Rose Goldberg... what? Hippy, Hippy, Hippy, Generic... You can kind of get away with River or Rain Phoenix. But River Phoenix Smith? Probably not so much... Ah well, I plan on naming my son Landis, after the dorm that my wife and I lived. And our daughter is expected to be named Darcy Elizabeth after my wife's favorite characters from literature... *looks around and realizes he's in a glass house*... I'll stop talking now ;)

Katrina! Yikes!

I hadn't noticed that Katrina had snuck up on Florida like it had. That'll teach me to go out of town for two days. Florida hasn't had it too rough this Hurricane season and it has been significantly better than last year. Katrina is going to be the worst storm this year for Florida but it appears that it won't even be a Hurricane when it makes land fall. It'll dump a ton of water on the ground and there'll be some downed trees and power lines but nothing like last year. I hope everyone in the Central to Southern Florida areas do well. Those of you who are still in Tallahassee should look out cause it's probably coming your way ;)

And the verdict is?

I have to say that I'm pretty impressed by Google Desktop. It's fairly unobtrusive and not too resource intensive. I list those two items first because I think they are the most important. In addition it has some very nice and very smart features. It picks up RSS feeds just by visiting a website. My recent history had both this blog and my brother's blog and it picked them up right away. A quick jump over to Fark.com and ESPN.com got me further RSS feeds without any effort. At that point I noticed that I was picking up ESPN's main RSS feed which included numerous crappy baseball and basketball. A quick jump into the college football, NFL and Soccer sections of the website and picked up those feeds (thanks ESPN) and then with a quick click I was able to remove the ESPN main feed and waalaa! No more baseball cluttering up my desktop :)

The desktop has a email tap in that doesn't quite work (it seems like it should be able to preview the mail items like the RSS feeds but you can't). You can still double click your way to your email though so that's nice.

There's also a scratch pad and a viewing pain that cycles through pictures on your hard drive in a folder you specify. This is a fairly new item for google but there's already a system monitor add-in among other things.

All in all I think google has another hit here but this one isn't quite the clearcut winner that gmail is. I'm sure that it'll get tweaked though so keep your eyes open.

Technology Amuck!

The last few days have seen an explosion of news stories that I consider fairly important.  Everything from nanotechnology to computer desktop manipulation to virtual reality life simulations.

The nontechnology story is easily the most important. I've been saying for the last couple of years that Nanotechnology and Artificial Intelligence are the two areas of science that you should invest in. These are the two things that are going to revolutionize everything. I'm not talking about little tiny robots the size of an atom nor do I envision Data from Star Trek walking around anytime soon. What I'm talking about is the real world, incremental discoveries in these fields. All new discoveries are trumpteted as amazing but this particular one actually is. These scientists have developed an automated procedure to create Nanotubes (an already existing and tested material) at the rate of about 10 sq. ft. per minute. That's not blindingly fast but its fast enough to actually make the material practical and it's only going to get faster and cheaper.

Google's desktop announcement is just another in a long line of things in which Google has shown that quality matters in software. Customized interfaces are coming into their own and this is a big first step. I haven't played with it yet but I'll probably mess around with it tonight and give a full report tomorrow.

The final article is more of a press piece for a MMORPG. But it's intrigueing in it's concept. I remember reading about the idea several years ago. Essentially, they want to create a 2nd world for people. They have encouraged the economy to grow and actively offer exchange rates so that people can buy things online. Their community is small (40k is a drop in the bucket in this industry...) but they're not exactly advertising everywhere. They're trying to grow by word of mouth and it seems to be working. The idea is something right out of a Sci-Fi movie but its not that far from becoming a reality.

The guy's won 7 Tour de France's... Aren't we all impressed?

This story amused me, not for the story itself, which was fine but rather for White House Spokesman, Trent Duffy's comments. "Recognizing what the world has known for years the President said, 'He's a good rider,'" Duffy said. Raise your hand if you think that Mr. Duffy won't be doing press work for awhile. I'm going to go a bit out on a limb here and say that President Bush has known for sometime that Mr. Armstrong is an exceptional, once in a generation kind of athlete. Instead, the official response is that President Bush is late to the party and that he thinks Armstong is a luke-warm "good".

I'm also not sure how wise it was to steadfastly refuse to speak with Cindy Sheehan and then take a 2 hour bike ride with a star athlete who's one public political ideology is that of opposition to Iraq. I like that Bush is sometimes willing to say, "Public impressions be damned" but there are times when his people can be just plain idiotic about certain things.

Weird Gmail problems

I've been out of touch for the last couple days because Gmail decided
to go all weird on my. I kept getting a "Server Error: Sorry for the
inconvenience please try again in a few minutes" message. I assumed
(wrongly as it turns out) that there was an error with the server. A
google search and a call to a friend later I discovered that nope...
it was just me...

I guess it's still in Beta so I'll cut them some slack, but it was
quite annoying.

Google Maps... The next big thing

I've loved google ever since I got turned onto it so many years ago. It's less cluttered then Yahoo and I'm a gigantic fan of their new gmail system (post a comment if you want me to send you an invite). Now they've got google maps which is very nice. I'm not sure it's quite up to par with Yahoo maps but it has some nifty features and provides for a satellite hybrid picture which is just spot on. Apparently though, Google hasn't stopped there. They've opened up their data stream for google maps to allow for all different kinds of applications. You can find world maps for Guild Wars online that use Google maps. You can find links to locations of all the people on hotornot.com.

Kevin Maney, the Tech writer for USAToday, had this article in the paper today. As programming becomes easier and computer languages become more comprehensible we'll continue to see this wave of new applications. There are alot of things that could be done (A brogdon.org hosting of all Landisites plotted on Google maps would be pretty nice... *CoughCough*). We'll just have to wait and see though.

On a related note, the article mentions a "...one bank that thought they had no customers outside the U.S. They found immediately that they had icons all over Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa." Uhmm... expect that Bank to get a phone call from its regulators any day now.

Yet more Roberts news

More news regarding the assorted documents released from the National Archives the other day. This one is going to get alot of press and knowledgeable Republicans are going to scream bloody murder about the leftist nature of that press. The problem is that without having a good grasp of economics it's very tough to understand the situation fully.

We often hear statistics about women only earning 60 cents on the dollar or 80 cents on the dollar for what men earn. The problem is that those are generally very raw statistics that don't take into account all of the variations important to job work. I'll go into all of those differences in a moment but let me suggest one thing. If there was this huge gender gap in pay scale then wouldn't you expect some enterprising young entrepeneur to start a company with all female workers? If women employees usually only get 60 cents on the dollar then they'll be happy to earn 70 cents on the dollar at your new company and you'll make a killing with all of these hyper efficient workers. We don't see that happening though.

The truth is that women generally get paid appropriately based on their experience and education (actually, recent studies seem to indicate that when you adjust for job "danger" women actually get paid a little better). That's the thing Dems don't like to hear. The thing Republicans don't like to hear is that there is still some discrimination in the workplace that results from passed over promotional opportunities. You can't directly address the 2nd by looking at the first, however.

Honestly, I've rarely seen blatant cases of sex discrimination. I worked at a small bank that had 7 board members (4 professional men, 2 house wives and 1 working widow) in addition to the female president. Senior management consisted of 2 women and 2 men. Women had roughly the same number of middle management positions as men and our loan officers were fairly evenly split between men and women. Some of this was attribitutable to the female president but the equity continued even after she took a big step back from the company. I'm not naive enough to think that my one small company experience extends to the entire country. I do think, however, that sexism is a dying breed that will continue to decline as younger generations enter the work force. The advent of computers has helped to level the playing field while also creating vague anonymity that helps the workplace to be gender and race neutral.

What makes a good game?

I recently got back in to playing Unreal Tournament. For me, this game
is the gold standard of First Person Shooters. I enjoy the slightly
unrealistic physics and surreal weapons. They create an environment
that is infinitely more entertaining to me than the more
hyper-realistic FPS's. Playing UT again made me start thinking about
what it was that I really liked about the game. What pushed it past
being just a cathartic shoot-em up and into the realm of strategy and
thought (at super high speeds).

I remember when I started hanging out on line with Andy and his
regular gaming group. I played the best guy in the group, Rhythm, 1on1
and he beat me with a score of 1 vs. alot. I spent a couple hours
talking to him and later Andy about different aspects of the game that
I never gave much thought to. I always thought of FPS as being "point
and click" kind of games. If you have the best aim you can win almost
every time. After talking with people for awhile I realized there's so
much more. Weapon Selection, Movement, Board Management (hoarding the
power ups and good weapons for yourself), Anticipation, Pattern
Recognition. All of these things are critical to becoming good at UT.

I was amazed watching Rhythm play. He knew all the different little
jumps you could make so that he could move around the board much
better than I even thought possible. I found myself running into
explosions everytime I rounded a corner because he knew that I would
be coming around the corner about that time. I never found myself with
a decent weapon and don't think I even saw one of the crucial
powerups. And so I learned that there were nuances far beyond "point
and click".

I think this analysis extends well towards other games. The games that
you can play once and enjoy the story are fun but if they don't have
some additional depth you'll probably never play them again. I've
played the original Final Fantasy through about 7 or 8 times just
because I enjoyed having different party combination to see how
challenging the game could be. I continue to play Championship Manager
because there's always difficulty in building and maintaining a sports
team. Master of Orion 1-3 are all good games that I still play.

What games are you guys playing now? What keeps you playing them?

John Roberts: Conservative or not?

Much has been made of this recent Supreme Court nominee and the presumption seems to be that he is somewhere to the right of moderate and liberals are calling him ultra-conservative. Let's look at the Supreme Court's history of nominations

 

John Paul Stevens: 100% against the death penalty... Ford appointee (A Republican)... Has been labeled as a liberal

Sandra Day O'Connor: Moderate to slightly conservative... Reagan appointee (A Republican)

Anthony Kennedy: Moderate to slightly conservative... Reagan appointee

David Souter: Moderate to slightly liberal... Bush appointee (the first one... a Republican)

 

(This website has a table (compiled by themselves so consider it with a grain of salt) that purports to break down various rulings by each of the justics based on whether they came down on the "conservative" side or the "liberal" side... They even go so far as to break things down based on economic vs. civil liberty issues.)

 

The right has been kind of hit or miss with its appointees... In fact, the court has had only 2 of its current justices (Breyer and Ginsburg) appointed by Democrats (Clinton for both).

 

And now we learn that John Roberts helped win landmark litigation against a Colorado constitutional amendment that would have prevented laws protecting gays from discrimination (a truly spectacular contrivance... a constituitional amendment barring equal protection laws... yowza!). I'm really starting to like this guy because, the more we look at things, the more it appears that we're replacing a moderate with a moderate. The court's dynamics won't change drastically (although they may change on certain issues). We'll still have Scalia, Rehnquist and Thomas vs. Stevens, Breyer and Ginsburg with 3 moderating voices with swing votes.

Bobbit, Buttafuoco and now Hyatte?

I find myself oddly intrigued by the rather bizarre prison break that occurred in Tennessee earlier this week. I'm pretty much convinced that we'll continue to hear more about this over the next couple weeks and it wouldn't shock me in the slightest if we see a TV movie in the works. America has a thinly veiled obsession with these kind of wacko criminals.

 

This particular case has all the markings of a TV news sensation.

 

1) Interracial couple

2) Woman committing the crime

3) Love story between prisoner and a prison nurse

4) Evil criminal and, until now, seemingly normal woman

5) A bizarre escape and a vaguely anti-climactic apprehension

 

Everything about this is unusual...

Right to Privacy: Does it Exist?

My wife forwarded me an article today from a lady named Wendy McElroy who writes an editorial for Fox News called IFeminist. She's clearly right leaning but if you mentally remove the editorialized sentences you find that she is making some very excellent points and I highly recommend her.

 

Looking through her archives I found this article which intrigued me. The right to privacy is truly going to be the next big legal frontier. The reason is that there is no right to privacy, at least not one that is established by our Constitution. That's an extreme statement but if you read the Constitution you'll find that your best hope towards establishing a right to privacy rests in the 3rd and 4th amendments. Court rulings have been fairly consistent in establishing even the vaguest of privacy rights only so far as the government is concerned. Stars can't sue for having their pictures taken, for example. Congress has never passed a sweeping law that establishes some kind of national level of privacy for the citizenry.

 

This right to privacy is very interesting. The right wants the courts to respect a privacy right that doesn't, technically, exist (at least not in codified law). But they also want the various intelligence gathering bodies to be able to track and monitor people and to increase the ease with which search warrants are awarded. The left would prefer that everyone be able to be completely anonymous except with regards to the government bureaucracy who really ought to no pretty much everything there is to know about you. Both sides accuse the other side of seeking judicial activism while denying that they want it themselves...

 

I propose no solution for these problems as I feel there are many right and wrong ways to look at things... I don't want for America to become an insular, secret society in which the right to privacy allows us to hide anything and everything... I also don't want society to become a completely open book ( Arthur C. Clark's The Light of Other Days is a fascinating look at that potential phenomenon) in which we have only our brains to hide things in...

Venezuelan Invasion??

The (apparently) cooky Venezuelan President said yesterday that his country could defeat a U.S invasion of his country. Isn't this kind of like Krispy Kreme announcing that they could fight off any effort by Microsoft to purchase them? Obviously we're not going to invade Venezuela. Why would we? Are there people out there that actually think we're going to be on some mission of invasion to turn every country democratic starting with the oil producing ones?

 

And to the students shouting, "Get out Bush!"... do you realize that we haven't actually invaded Venezuela? Or is this some kind of crusade to get our troops out of Iraq? Are there really people that think we want Iraq as a colony?

 

 

Let's take a look at the Fed statement

The fed continues to raise interest rates in quarter point increments and doesn't appear to be stopping. Today's announcement looks almost identical to June's announcement but, as usual, there are some subtle differences. Let's take a look, shall we?

June:
This sentence, "Although energy prices have risen further, the expansion remains firm and labor market conditions continue to improve gradually," became, "Aggregate spending, despite high energy prices, appears to have strengthened since late winter, and labor market conditions continue to improve gradually" in August. In essence, they have strengthened their argument that the markets are strong by giving a specific economic example of what they're looking at.

This sentence, "Pressures on inflation have stayed elevated, but longer-term inflation expectations remain well contained," became, "Core inflation has been relatively low in recent months and longer-term inflation expectations remain well contained, but pressures on inflation have stayed elevated," in August. Again, this is a small shift showing that they are looking at the core index, specifically, for inflation indications. This also appears to be a small warning that they're looking beyond the index at other economic factors for future inflation.

These were the only two changes in the text and they are, even for the Fed, relatively minor. What they seem to indicate is a shift towards specific areas of focus. Greenspan has long pointed towards consumer spending as the driver behind the recovery. It is unlikely that he is going to be worried about the economy as long as the job sector and consumer spending continue to be robust. This Fed, over the past 10 years, has been relatively constant in its belief that if people are working and spending money then everything else will work its way out.

I would look for another quarter point bump at the end of September and another in November. That would bring Fed Funds rate to 4% which would be at the bottom range of what most people consider "neutral" (4-5% is generally regarded as neutral, some people expand this to 3.5 - 5.5% or 3 - 6% but 4-5% is the general rule of thumb). Barring a collapse in the consumer spending numbers or the job number it is unlikely that we'll see anything but another .25% in October.

It starts today

It took a couple of weeks but we are finally seeing potshots getting taken at John Roberts. NARAL is running a TV ad that accuses him of supporting fringe groups. What the ad neglects to mention is that the current court agreed with the brief he wrote in a 6-3 vote.

 

The other shot hits a little closer to home for me. In a district court ruling last month, Roberts and two other judges gave the executive branch broad authority in their legal prosecution of terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo. This case will almost certainly go to the Supreme Court and could lead to a split decision because of Mr. Roberts need to recuse himself (should he be confirmed).

 

I have long been torn on the issue of Executive powers during wartime. After putting a lot of thought into. I believe that both sides have got this one wrong. What's interesting is that I don't think I'm viewing this through the lenses of a centrist trying to comprise a left/right problem. I see this as a businessman trying to find a solution to two related but equally crappy problems.

 

The problem is that certain undesirable things must be done with regards to wartime trials. The names can't be released very often because if the other side knows who is captured they'll know what plans are likely compromised. Contact can't be permitted with the outside world because of the ease with which a message could be passed. Exact crimes can't always be specified because of the disclosure requirements for a fair trial. Consequently, criminals can sometimes be detained for extensive periods of time without having an opportunity to demonstrate their innocence. While I acknowledge that all of these steps need to be taken I also acknowledge that every single one of these things is bad and, to varying degrees, un-American.

 

The solution, I feel, is to create some kind of mechanism by which we can allow these things to continue without feeling like we are potentially infringing upon our civil rights. The way in which this should be done is to provide some kind of Judicial (preferable to the political and leaky nature of the Legislature) check to the Executive's power. I'm okay with them meeting in secret and I'm okay with not knowing what was done or said for a very long time. I just want to know that somebody outside of the military and the Executive branch is looking at these things to be certain that things aren't going to far.

Seminoles in Limbo?

The NCAA has decided to issue yet another vague, barely enforceable rule. Don't be fooled by the headline. The NCAA is proposing a blanket ban on Indians. In fact, the NCAA rule is worded in such a way that it could apply to any offensive mascot or symbol. It isn't clear from the article, however, who the arbiter of the process is going to be. Is it going to be like so many other PC things where if even one person complains it's deemed offensive? If so, how long until hurricane victims ask the University of Miami to change their name? What about St. Johns who's already changed their name from the Reds to the Red Storm? Given their history it just sounds like a very slight adjustment. Is the Yellow Jacket's a reference to Asian sports coats?

 

Our wonderful PC world has gotten a little silly at times. Some mascots (the Redskins for example) do need to go by the wayside. But, if FSU changes their name for anything but the best of reasons then I will be sadly disappointed.

It's a crazy world today...

Israel just can't seem to leave well enough alone. I can't help but feel like the whole Israel/Palestine situation is like two little kids who just hate eachother. They each have to get in the last word to prove that they won the fight. Now Israel wants to build in the West Bank. I don't know what the geography is there but I have trouble believing that there isn't a better place for these new settlements. Can someone explain to me why this is being done and why it's being done in the West Bank? As an outsider looking in, it sure seems like they're just trying to flex their muscle and pick a fight... Maybe I'm wrong but that's the way it looks from out here.

The tricky subject of detaining terrorists

Here is a link to Amnesty International's report about two individuals that were allegedly detained by Americans. This is a perfect example of how AI, in its zeal to right wrongs, has shot themselves in the foot.

 

Let's take most of what these two individuals are saying at face value. Even going that far is a bit of a leap as AI has offered no corroborative evidence for the two men other than a vague quote from two unattributed Yemeni source: "now we are running prisons for the Americans" and "just a matter of telling the US authorities that we will set them free". Note that the second seems to imply that they are going to be set free and that the Americans aren't "forcing" the Yemeni's to hold them.

 

Here are the "facts" that are especially relevant:

1) The initial capture and interrogations were done by Indonesian and Jordanian officials. The US is not responsible for those actions (though we should do something to curtail them perhaps).

 

2) There is an allusion to translators which leads me to believe that the two individuals in question did not speak English. I'm curious, then, how they can positively identify the interrogators as Americans. The ascribed testimony of the two men does not appear to claim that their interrogators identified themselves as American. If the Yemeni officials are correct then the only connection the US can be shown to have with the men is in their transfer (which appears to be heading towards freedom) out of confinement. The interrogators are also noted to have been dressed like "Ninjas" and so it's uncertain if even their ethnicity was known.

 

3) The report is noteable for its ridiculous assertion regarding Diego Garcia as well. Since the second trip (which AI is guessing might have been to Diego Garcia) ended with a 2 hour helicopter flight it is impossible that that was the location unless the drop off point was an aircraft carrier (which, even blindfolded, someone could figure out).

 

4) I highly doubt that AI has made this story up. I do believe that AI has a proven history of filling in the holes in stories with clever imagination and with being rather naive when it comes to the stories that they're told by alleged victims.

 

5) AI is also fairly naive in its request to have the whereabouts of terror detainees disclosed. If there are secret underground CIA bases (doesn't this all sound a little paranoid to you guys?) then they are secret for a reason. They are likely lightly guarded and if discovered would be prime targets for attack.

 

6) The "piping in" of western music is particularly humourous to me. While it could be that the music is blared through speakers it could also be that it's little more than elevator music done to soothe the prisoners.

 

7) The title of the report, "USA: Torture and secret detentions" shows the bias against the US that will only hinder their efforts. Nowhere in the report is there even a hint of an allegation that they were tortured while in " U.S." custody. The worst things listed were the lack of a toilet and the piping in of "western music". The title might more properly have been titled Jordan: Arrest and Torture, USA: Secret detentions.

 

8) While I believe there are elements of truth to the report I could easily construct a scenario that fits the description of events. Two men are arrested by Jordanian officials. The British, suspecting them of being involved in the (then recent) attacks in Madrid arrange to have them transferred to their custody. The British hold them somewhere (pick a point 3-4 hours from Jordan). The prisoners assume that these English speaking people are Americans and the interrogators to not do anything to dissuade them of that notion. After holding them for some time, the US learns that the British have them in custody. The US has them transferred to their custody (in which conditions appear to have been just fine) and holds them for another 6-8 months then sends them to Yemen after they determine their innocence (which I'm inclined to grant them because no country that's willing to hold onto people for 2 years would release someone they suspected of terrorism simply because they couldn't find hard evidence).

 

In short, AI should focus on reality and save their wishlist for better times. AI should ask the US to disclose whether or not they do this and in what volume. The request for locations and names is just not going to happen. They should ask that some semblance of due process be exercised. If they really want to shoot the moon, they should ask that a member of the IRC be allowed to be taken (blindfolded if necessary) to one or more of these "secret" locations to examine the conditions of the facilities and the prisoners.

Guild Wars

I've been playing alot of Guild Wars lately and I highly recommend it. There's a couple things that separate this game from its competition
(Everquest and the like).

First, there's no monthly fee. I know... I was shocked too. There business model calls for ever continued expansions of both free and for pay content. That news alone caused my ears to perk up

Second, the server's are (apparently) completely stable. I have experienced no downtime in the last week and have seen no complaints of downtime on any of the forums.

Finally, the game is almost like two games in one. You can start a lvl 20 (the highest lvl currently attainable) character any time. There are a number of pre-set choices that you can choose or you can create your own. However, if you create your own you have access only to those abilities that you've "Unlocked" playing the RPG side of the game. This sounds like it forces you to group and play with other people but that's actually not really necessary as there are henchman available for hire in most cities.

If anyone is looking for a change I think Guild Wars is a pretty good place to look ($40 on Amazon, $50 at BestBuy or from the plaync.com
website).

Racial Profiling? Right or Wrong?

<USAToday:
People's opinions of various added security measures</a>

I have to say that my opinion of racial profiling is well mirrored by society. I find myself torn on the issue because there are so many subtle and nuanced issues. I find myself asking these questions: Would additional security checks of German citizens have been objected to during the 2nd world war? Should there not have been extra scrutiny for Russian visitors to America during the height of the Cold War? I think the emphatic answer to these is NO and yet when we begin talking about race instead of national origin suddenly the issue changes dramatically.

I think, for the sake of sanity, we should seperate what we're calling "Racial Profiling" into two types. The two types are "Invasive" profiling and "Passive" profiling. Invasive profiling is pulling someone over or tapping someone's phone. Passive profiling is running a name through a database or just calling a supervisor over to take a look. Frankly, I feel that passive profiling should probably be encouraged and should certainly be used prior to any active profiling steps are taken.

There are a number of other factors to consider as well. Are we gaining anything by doing these kinds of searchs? Do they have high success rates? Are we increasing our chances of success by a measurable amount or are we only marginally reducing the size of the haystack that the needle is in? But the big question... The fundamental question is this: Why are we doing it? Is it because we have some kind of predetermined prejudice? As in the highly popularized cases of the profiling of black motorists. Or is it because there has been some clear, demonstrable event from a small, identifiable group? As in the various terrorist attacks.

I think, on balance, I would like to see a blanket policy for Arab immigrants and travelers to undergo some kind of additional, cursory scrutiny. I'm not suggesting that they all get strip searched at the airport. What I am suggesting is that someone, somewhere does some kind of check. Not being involved in law enforcement or the intelligence committee, I can't really comment intelligently on what should or could be done but it seems like something is necessary.

On a side note:
6% of Americans would be okay police searching their home at any time without a warrant. 29% would be okay with police doing the searches randomly, without cause on the street. Who are these people?