3:45

No, they haven't changed the schedule on the South Shore. That's when I had to set my alarm this morning. I'm carpooling to Schaumburg with Brenda and Kevin to take part in roundtable review of annual performance. Our meeting is at 7:00 a.m. and will be done around 8. It's not like we didn't try to swap. Karen (my boss) had to cancel an appointment with a VP from firmwide in order to attend. And we asked for reimbursement for hotels, but they wouldn't budge. It could have definitely been worse - there are groups coming into town today from Elkhart, IN and Madison, WI.

Random site of the [time unit here]

This site is an example of: the power of creative marketing
good Flash gone bad
the desperate measures a company can take to market an unmarketable product
why website designers should be licensed and regulated
Hormel's answer to Vegemite
a company who thinks its product is more popular than it is
why the plastic packaging industry is doing so well these days
why the US is better than all other countries combined
why the US is dumber than all other countries combined
the "decadence of the infidels" about which Osama bin Laden loves to speak
Other

War reports you won't hear elsewhere

Via Army News Service comes this report on how our forces are taking it to the Taliban:

QALAT, Afghanistan (Army News Service, May 9, 2005) – Paratroopers engaged a Taliban force last week in a remote valley of southeastern Afghanistan after an outnumbered scout patrol held out for 2.5 hours against heavy insurgent attack. The May 3 battle in the Arghandab Valley, about 175 miles northeast of Kandahar, was part of the Coalition’s spring offensive, dubbed “Operation Determined Resolve,” with the aim of denying sanctuary to insurgents in preparation for fall elections, said a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force 76. Initial reports indicate about 20 insurgents were killed and one wounded in the battle. One Afghan National Police officer was killed and five wounded, and six U.S. service members were wounded.

The story includes a full battle report - who arrived when and what they did. Some scary stuff in here:

As much as the scouts laid down cover fire the landing zone was taking too much fire for the reinforcements to land. The scouts, who had been engaged in the firefight for more than two and a half hours, watched as the CH-47 Chinook aborted the landing and flew away. “You can’t imagine how scary it is to be in a fire fight like this and after two and a half hours of fighting, to see the support leave,” Ortiz said.

Later, paratroopers were able to join in the firefight, and attack the enemy from an unexpected direction. At least 17 enemy combatants killed, nine captured.

Enemy ferocity surprised some “I expected there to be stiff resistance but not as severe as this,” said Riggenberg. Chosen Company’s first sergeant, though, said he wasn’t surprised by the enemies’ dedication. “They’ve been fighting for so many years,” said 1st Sgt. Scott Brzak. “They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.” The effect the battle has had on his Soldiers is a positive one, said Brzak. “The Soldiers now know that they can depend on and trust the buddy to the left and right of them,” Brzak said. “They know their buddy will lay down their life for them. They also now know how the enemy operates and can pass this experience on to the rest of the company and the battalion.” After-action report positive All wounded ANP and U.S. Soldiers were evacuated to Kandahar Airfield for medical treatment. They were reported in stable condition. Two U.S. wounded Soldiers were treated and returned to duty. The other four Soldiers were transported to Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany for further treatment and are reportedly in stable condition. Six insurgents were detained and questioned. The village leader was also detained after villagers reported him as a Taliban member. Coalition forces are also meeting with local leaders to coordinate assistance to the village. A number of questions have been raised as to the significance of the battle. The ferocity with which the insurgent fighters defended their position is atypical of the hit and run and improvised explosive device tactics the Taliban had been using since being removed from power. “This is going to force them to rethink their strategy,” Riggenberg said. “I think our tactics will force them to fight and die or surrender. I think we put them on their heels. They now know that the American Army still has the energy to hunt them down.”

So the next time you hear someone saying how we're not really searching for Bin Laden and the Taliban, you'll know they don't know what they're talking about. And yes, it is still a war, and we are winning it.

PETA's dirty little secret

I don't have a particular interest in the debate over PETA's position. (For the record, I believe killing an animal does not carry the same weight as killing a person, but it should be done humanely whenever possible.) However, this site seems to have some rather negative things to say about PETA which, if true, call into questions the true motives of the group.

From July 1998 through the end of 2003, PETA killed over 10,000 dogs, cats, and other "companion animals" -- at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. That's more than five defenseless animals every day. Not counting the dogs and cats PETA spayed and neutered, the group put to death over 85 percent of the animals it took in during 2003 alone. ... On its 2002 federal income-tax return, PETA claimed a $9,370 write-off for a giant walk-in freezer, the kind most people use as a meat locker or for ice-cream storage. But animal-rights activists don't eat meat or dairy foods. So far, the group hasn't confirmed the obvious -- that it's using the appliance to store the bodies of its victims. In 2000, when the Associated Press first noted PETA's Kervorkian-esque tendencies, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk complained that actually taking care of animals costs more than killing them. "We could become a no-kill shelter immediately," she admitted.

I had heard from other sources that PETA's true agenda is total animal liberation - no zoos, no circuses, no house pets and no fences. Not sure how this fits into that argument - anybody heard anything related?

Voter fraud most people will never hear about

Powerline has notes and links about the voter fraud that took place in Wisconsin for the last presidential elections. There seems to be no way around this - there was major fraud.

The Milwaukee investigation has revealed that the number of ballots counted there exceeds, by 4,609, the number of people recorded as voting. There is no evident explanation for this other than ballot box stuffing. In addition, investigators found "more than 200 cases of felons voting illegally and more than 100 people who voted twice, used fake names or false addresses or voted in the name of a dead person." And that's just the fraud that has been specifically identified. Approximately 70,000 voters registered in Milwaukee on election day, and they voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry. Altogether, Kerry received 71% of the 277,000 votes cast in Milwaukee, a margin of 116,000 votes. There is no way to be sure whether more than 11,000 votes--less than 10% of Kerry's Milwaukee margin--were fraudulent. But it is entirely possible that voter fraud swung Wisconsin into the Democrats' column.

No statistics here about how many have registered on election day in Wisconsin in past years. It wouldn't be surprising to see this number much higher than normal because of the intensity of the election, but we really will never know how many of these were fraudulent. Election-day registration may make voting more accessible to the masses, but if not managed properly, it opens the door to fraud on a massive scale. Most importantly, there's no practical way to prevent someone from driving from polling place to polling place, claiming a different name and address at each poll. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A photo ID requirement might have caught some of the problems highlighted in Tuesday's preliminary report. It notes cases of people voting in the name of a dead person or as someone else. Investigators located some people listed as voting who said they did not vote. In other cases, according to Tuesday's report, people "registered and voted with identities and addresses that cannot in any way be linked to a real person."

A proposed law to require photo ID's when registering on election day has been fought by the Democrats, and vetoed by the Democratic Governor, but could still pass by voter mandate. I'm not sure why asking for a photo-ID is such a great infringement on privacy -- you need a photo ID just to cash a check or get on a plane -- but that seems to be the common argument against. While nobody is suggesting this fraud would have changed the election, as they did about Florida in 2000, more than a couple of people are filing charges to set the record straight and afix some blame for the mistake. Via Duluth News Tribune and the AP newswire:

The state Elections Board launched an investigation into why the state's largest county approved voting results without receiving the materials after the Nov. 2 election, said executive director Kevin Kennedy. The investigation could result in a legal challenge to the outcome of the presidential race because the state used incomplete information to certify the results, said state Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan. He said Milwaukee County committed "a clear violation of state law" and election workers could face felony charges specified under state law.

Felony charges are well deserved, in my mind. Tampering with the ballot in some ways lowers us to the level of tyrants like Saddam Hussein. The results of a ballot must be as accurate as humanly possible or it loses its value entirely.

Todd's new blog

Just got an email from one of my college roommates, Todd Jensen, that he's started a blog, titled "The Infamous Last Word." For the second time, apparently. No telling whether his previous attempt was entitled "The Not-Quite-As-Infamous Penultimate Word." As near as I can tell, yes, the image appears to be him, though I can't even guess the occasion. Knowing him, there may not have even been an occasion. Like most blogs (including mine), his first post is off to a roaring start of introspection, existential discussions on the demands of blogging, and pre-apologies for not updating it often enough. I'm sure bigger things will come. Best of luck, and welcome to the party, Todd!

So that's my problem

A study conducted in London for Hewlett Packard suggests that "Info-Mania", the habit of constantly checking and responding to email, phone calls and text messages, causes an average 10-point drop in effective IQ, equivalent to the impact of losing an entire night's sleep.

Far from making workers more productive, the findings of a new scientific experiment reveal that those who “over juggle” and who constantly disrupt meetings and important tasks to read and respond to messages, significantly reduce their IQ. In a series of tests carried out by Dr Glenn Wilson, Reader in Personality at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, an average worker’s functioning IQ falls ten points when distracted by ringing telephones and incoming emails. This drop in IQ is more than double the four point drop seen following studies on the impact of smoking marijuana. Similarly, research on sleep deprivation suggests that an IQ drop of ten points is equal to missing an entire night of sleep. This IQ drop was even more significant in men who took part in the tests.

Why the comparison to marijuana? Probably because both email and pot make you think you're smarter but you're really not. They also found that Info-Mania can be an addiction -- no great surprise to anyone who knows why Crackberry is the most common nickname for a Blackberry device. Over 62% of adults are addicted to checking email after hours and on vacation. About 50% will respond to email within 60 minutes, and 20% feel it is OK and efficient to interrupt a meeting to respond to email. All in all, an interesting statement on "spending mental capital". Between checking my email frequently and not getting enough sleep at night, I figure I'm running about 15 points below my potential. Sounds like something worth doing something about. Of course, I'm still waiting for the study to determine the effect of a Triple Vente Caramel Macchiato on IQ.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The film to the book is finally here. I missed opening weekend, though I guess it took top ticket sales. Seeing this movie is high on my list.

Movie home

Story by CNN

imdb summary and cast

BBC hitchhiker's homepage. The original Hitchhiker's was a radio show on BBC.

HHGTG was also converted to an interactive text computer game some years ago. A fully authorized version is now online. Gameplay is still text based, but it has a nifty flash interface to most commands.

wikipedia entry for HHGTG

BBC even has audio transcripts of the memorial service for Douglas Adams when he died in 2001. Apparently, the mice should have simply asked Google