| Washington Post
Philip Bennett, the Washington Post's managing editor, paid a visit to the University of California, Irvine for a little chat earlier this week. During his comments on the subject of religion and politics, Bennett claimed that the MSM should hire more Muslims because the media has too many misconceptions about Islam. Bennett told the UCI audience, "At the Post I want more Muslim readers and I want more Muslim journalists." One wonders how far this new understanding of Islam in the media will go for Bennett, though? Will his desire to be inclusive and to create a new politically correct understanding go as far as excusing Islamofascism as we try to better understand Islam? The report in the Daily Pilot from Newport Beach, California also reported that the newsroom at the Washington Post was even debating whether or not they should even use the word "Islamist" because it might be too "contentious." This WaPost debate alone does not auger as well for any better understanding as it does for overlooking the evil perpetrated in the name of Islam in favor of making believe that our understanding of them will somehow stop the violence and hate against us.
Dixon Wants Out of Toronto
From the law offices of McAfee & Taft, a letter dated Feb. 14 was submitted to Seattle city attorney Thomas A. Carr, highlighting the three scenarios of the June 16 court case. In statement No. 5 of the letter, the Professional Basketball Club makes the offer: "The third scenario is a settlement. PBC is willing to offer a one-time payment to the City that will (a) satisfy the anticipated rental revenue sharing payments and admissions taxes of the final two years of the KeyArena lease and; (b) provide the City sufficient funds to pay the $26.5 million principal due on the KeyArena debut as it matures."The letter then states that Professional Basketball Club will offer the city of Seattle a payment of $7,265,286 to cover the final two years of rent at KeyArena and a payment of $19,305,766 to cover the current estimated bond due for the previous repairs to KeyArena.
First Alterman, Then Obama!:
As a state patrolman pushes the governor's Ford hybrid sport utility vehicle toward 90 mph, coaxing it to an unnatural whine, Richardson punches buttons on one of his three cellphones. He calls an aide and discusses potential fundraising events in April and May with Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Then he dials U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., leaving a message on the Senate minority leader's cellphone about an immigration-reform bill being debated that day: "I don't like this Hagel-Martinez initiative. It's sort of half a loaf. Let's hold fast." [E.A.] If you want the whole loaf, it looks like Richardson is your guy. ... 7:07 P.M. Saturday, May 12, 2007 Econopundit posits the intriguing exception to the "Fifty-Fifty Forever" Theory: Modern elections are largely governed by the principle of minimum differentiation which (according to the mean voter theorem) will generally produce a 50-50 split in most polls and elections.
Start-up Blist readies easy-to-use online relational database
Blist was unveiled Jan. 28 at Network World's DEMO 08, a showcase for new technology products and companies. (A video of Blist's presentation is available on Demo.com).The company is betting that lots of folks, from small business owners tracking sales, to fantasy football players and recipe hoarders, are ready, willing and able to give up using Microsoft Excel for data management and turn to database technology delivered as an online service. Blist uses the established open source PostgreSQL database engine for numbers and similar data that are the traditional domain for a RDBMS, coupled with a highly scalable distributed file system for documents and other stuff that won't "fit" into the RDBMS. The Blist database stores a bunch of metadata about these external files so they can be found and manipulated quickly.
Early morning update: Rock rising at Joslin
Closed streets include: 60th Street south of Green Valley Park; North Shore Drive between 16th and 26th streets; South Shore Drive, both east and west of 27th Street. In addition, the following parks are closed due to flooding Harold’s Landing, Old Green Valley Park and Veteran’s Park.Attention now focuses on the Rock River at Joslin where the Rock was over its banks at 17.17 feet at 3:30 a.m. Flood stage is 12 feet. The river is predicted to rise to near 17.8 feet by Saturday afternoon, then begin falling, according the to the weather service. Ice jams could lead to local fluctuations of 1 to 3 feet. At 17.7 feet, water affects the railroad tracks south of Prophetstown and rural farm fields.On the Iowa side, the Wapsipinicon River near DeWitt dropped below flood stage this morning.
Justice at Guantanamo
The recorder then culls the information for the most relevant evidence and provides it to the tribunals. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has the exclusive right under the Detainee Treatment Act to review the tribunals' decisions. In Gates v. Bismullah, a unanimous D.C. Circuit panel found last year that it could not properly rule on a case without seeing all of the information gathered by the recorder -- not just what was forwarded to the tribunal. The administration decried the decision, saying it imposes an extraordinary burden on the government; the administration says it keeps records only of the information presented at a tribunal. Forcing government personnel to reconstruct the original record would squander resources necessary to the preservation of national security, the government claims.
New York Times Goes to Great Lengths to Discredit 'Splendor'
It also presented an extremely inaccurate picture of the audience response to the show itself, focusing on the specific group chased down for interviews. The article periodically dropped in negative comments the reporters had collected, including one from a Chinese man simply named "Steven" and another from a Chinese immigrant from Dallas who was unnamed. .
3G iPhones arriving this summer, say analysts
When it comes to the mythical 3G iPhone, rumors about the device are certainly nothing new. Analysts in the past predicted 3G iPhones during the 2007 holiday season, but we've all see how that one has (or hasn't) turned out. Now the rumors are back, this time coming from UBS analysts Nicolas Gaudois and Ben Reitzes. According to AppleInsider, they're predicting that 3G iPhones with Infineon equipment inside will be arriving sometime this summer. Although it doesn't seem to be much different from last year's rumor, this latest 3G tidbit seems to have some facts behind it. The pair believes the iPhone will use HSDPA 3G technology (the same technology AT&T uses for its current 3G offering). Infineon already produces 3G radio hardware, but references by Infineon to an "HSDPA solutions design win" may be related to the company providing a new 3G platform for the iPhone.
March 2008
Some new news to share about autism today. At a press conference this morning, a Georgia family will describe how the government has conceded that a vaccine "contributed" to their daughter's autism symptoms. The family will receive compensation from a federal vaccine court.That doesn't mean the federal government agrees that vaccines cause autism (click here for more on autism). Nor does this 9-year-old girl's case mean the 4,900 other families in the vaccine court have won their claim that vaccines resulted in their children's autism. That case continues.Advocates who see a vaccine-autism link point to Hannah Poling's case as a big victory for their cause - evidence of the potentially disastrous side effects of vaccines.Within 48 hours after receiving her vaccinations, Hannah, then 19 months old and by all accounts a normal little girl, developed a high fever, inconsolable crying and some signs of regression, including difficulty walking and speaking.Over the next several months, she had countless visits with doctors finally culminating in the diagnosis of encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder.
Act of kindness produces close shave
Last year, Larry Durian jumped into his first St. Baldrick's Day activity head first — so to speak — at the urging of a colleague. This time around, the Canton man is being led by his heart. And for good reason. Durian volunteered to have his head shaved last March at Canton's St. Baldrick's Day, a meaningful alternative to St. Patrick's Day as well as a major fund-raiser to fight childhood cancer. He thinks that good deed just may have saved his life. ''Larry Durian was shaved and the stylist saw a spot on his head that she suggested he have looked at,'' Sue Stevenson, veteran planner of Stark County's St. Baldrick's Day activities, said about last year's party with a purpose. ''Sure enough, he had skin cancer, and he would not have probably found it if he hadn't shaved his head for our event.'' Durian, who is director of the pretrial department of Stark County Family Court, was all too happy to talk about the serendipitous circumstances.
Doris Goodwin on Obama's Borrowings
In the days since Gerald Ford's death, so much praise has been heaped on the late president's blanket pardon to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, that you'd think Tricky Dick was Jean Valjean. These magnanimous pronouncements are a preening exercise in cost-free generosity three decades after the fact. They reflect little or no consideration of the merits of the pardon itself. No new information has emerged during the past 32 years that makes Ford's pardon to Nixon look any more justifiable; indeed, what facts have dribbled forth make it seem less so. (More on these later.) Nor can the pardon plausibly be considered an example of the bipartisan spirit for which Ford is justly, if too extravagantly, praised by Washington insiders. The pardon may have had the long-term effect of tamping down partisan warfare between Democrats and Republicans over a possible criminal trial (obstruction of justice would have been the likeliest charge), but when a Republican short-circuits prosecution of a fellow Republican, you can't call that bipartisanship.
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