done
I just found out that a friend of mine lost his father who was working for the government. I'm done posting for the day . . .

Just when . . .
Just when you think the days of old-fashioned burgleries and capers are over, you get a diamond heist estimated at over $100million . . . bring back Sherlock and Diagnosis Murder! :)

Reminds me . . .
In the world gone mad, computers/technology are sure helping the trip there. With Londons new traffic tax there have been a few bugs. (Similar to the bugs found in the draft system mentioned yesterday.) Apparently a 105 year old car which has been on the road since 1947, which hasn't run on by it's on power for 25 years was slapped with a $63 fine. Apparently it was trying to evade the congestion charges . . .

This reminds me, not entirely but just a little, of a 66 mustang I've been working on for a number of years. When I first started on it and finally got it past inspection I started getting notices that I couldn't have a car out front that couldn't run. I explained to them that it could in fact and and had passed inspection, they apologized. A month or so later I recieved another notice, this time a little more threatening. They claimed that someone had come up and checked the vehicle and could find no city sticker or current inspection . . . This went on for too long until we explained they were mistaken, asked where the complaints were coming from and mentioned the word harrasment. Haven't heard from them since, but they never did say who reported the car to them . . .

Hope
And a victory for the dogs . . . if they're moving you don't have much of a chance, but parked! They're all yours . . .

Funny thing, timing
Funny thing, timing is. Yesterday on the radio show "No Spin Zone" Bill was talking about him being a fatalist, that everyone has their time set on earth and you can't stop it. Here's a news story about a man that tried to commit suicide but the rope wasn't of good quality and was easily cut by family members when they found him. The funny thing is, when he gets released from the hospital he plans on filing a complain with the Consumer Protection Authority

Scary
Here's a BBC story about a confrontation outside the US consulate in Karachi, Pakistan where two policemen were killed. My first impression of the news was a little cautious but the last part of the report really makes you look twice.

"Last May a bomb attack outside the Sheraton hotel killed 11 French nationals and three Pakistanis.

And in December three people were killed in an attack at the Macedonian consulate in Karachi.

The dead - all Pakistani - had been tied up, gagged and killed before an explosion at the office, and doctors said the throats of two of the victims had been slit. "

Funny
Glann Reynolds put up this cartoon, very funny . . . There were quite a few funny cartoons from the first war with Iraq, I'll have to see if I can find them . . .

Update
Here is a link to one of the funnier ones. I was a lot younger during that war, and my older brother was the one to introduce me to this particular cartoon. I kept it safe because it came from him. Thought I'd share the little story behind it.

Interesting
So there's a gallop poll on CNN about President Bush's ratings falling slightly because of the economy and Iraq. Not surprising the way those items get reported, but history shows that should the Iraqi war go well (if it happens) then both the economy and ratings should be on the mend. But, this brings me to my daily rant, (not because I care all that much about it but because it's fun to complain about the liberal bias in CNN's reporting. ;) )

The markets are all heading up again today, with the DOW closing in on 8000 and the CNN poll for today is, "Is the economy improving?" The surprise results you may ask? After a week of taking some hard hits from headlines (and still improving a bit from Monday's start) is that the No's are ahead 73% to the yes's 27%.

Not such a good thing
This story from Times Online has a sad story to tell. A woman undergoing a heart transplant died because the table she was on broke. You may think of some rickety old operating table like I had, but apparently it wasn't the case

"The cardiac unit at Derriford Hospital, the biggest hospital in the South West, is one of the most modern in Britain. It is equipped with three up-to-date operating tables costing about £50,000 each."

Scary thought. It's hard to believe that out of all the things that could have gone wrong . . .

Good Morning
Hey there. It's a good morning. It may not look like it but, as Friday has the nature of being good, today being Friday, it must be good.

Although my network will be down at 1 until this evening which isn't so good, never-the-less . . .

Today is good.

LOL
My daily rant on the market analysts . . . today the markets are up but the word from the analysts is that the "Markets cling to gains." That's going to get the consumers out there!

That's nice
With the resignation of Hubbard from the chairmanship of the White House Council of Economic Advisors I have a feeling the left will spin this as a sign that the Bush plan has already failed even before it gets started. Whether he means it or not Hubbard said that his reasons for leaving were because "family needs are my most significant concern," as his family lives in New York and he must work in Washington. I can understand that.

That's nice to hear in a world like today's. I hope that turns out to be the case.

Love
You know, I believe in love, but this guy really went too far. If a guy has to do that then I'm out, I'm afraid that the world is worse off than I thought . . .

I'm shocked, shocked to find there's gambling going on here
This is another humorous story about a Japanese Bullet Train operator that fell asleep at the wheen for about 8 minutes. These drivers are apparently "trained elite," thankfully the technology used automatcially slowed and stopped the train at the next station.

I guess some computers have a heart. (re: last post . . .)

Computers are funny . . .
CNN has a short, funny things happen when you use technology to make things easier."An 80-year-old British pensioner has been called up by the Ministry of Defence for possible action in Iraq"

I think that computers really do have a mind of their own. Some are plain mean, as evidenced by the "blue screen of death," But others just have a since of humor, either sick (INS sending acceptance papers down to the Florida flight school) or playful as in this case.

Nonviolence
I'm glad that the doves are all about being rational. In all fairness, both sides have their crazies but this kind of threat is really not an acceptable form of protest. (Cyanide Threat Made Against U.S., Australian and British Embassies in New Zealand)

Confession
My whole family is made up of English types and I am the one black sheep who went into the sciences. I try my best at stating my thoughts correctly but I slip up more often then I'm aware of or care to imagine. Forgive me if you can.

That's all, thanks. :)

Update
Defensetech really is outdoing itself lately . . . Here's the latest on the adventure.

Mr. Rogers, God bless
The day just turned a little grayer . . .

gre/ay
Ever since 9th grade where I had a teacher with a last name of Grey, I've been confused by the spelling of gre/ay. I've used it twice in the past week and spelled it both ways. I usually forget to look it up because I get caught up with this or that. Surprisingly enough I looked it up and it said it could go either way. And all this time I fretted about which was correct.


Now onto allll my other speeling mistkes.

No big deal
So on a forum that I run for a largely high school age group, I had made reference to yesterday's Supreme Court ruling that you can't take away the freedom of speech of a Pro-life activist using the racketeering laws.

In reply I got that it was no big deal. I agreed with him that it wasn't new that we had the right to freedom of speech and to peacefully gather but what made it a big deal was that there was a group there that felt they needed to take that right away from those that held the belief that abortions are wrong.

It's incredible that in a land where we have so many freedoms and cry foul when the government tries to take them away or impose restrictions you have those very same people working hard and paying top dollar to take those same rights away from people who dissagree with them. The truths we hold to be self evident are alright as long as they are only for those that agree with those that agree with them.

And to some, it's "no big deal" when those rights are almost lost . . .

Birds
I woke up this morning and as I was getting ready to go I heard them singing. Beautiful. I must say that I look forward to early morning when it's filled with the melody of nature. It reminds me of the summer camp days where I would spend the whole summer under a tent and the sounds of nature were both welcomed and for that matter unavoidable.

It's still gray outside but it's being whispered . . .. spring is coming.

One of those days
Not a whole lot of entries today. Kind of busy with work, etc., it's a start though . . .

I wonder how much it snowed today . . .

Farewell.
This was a nice tribute to Pioneer 10 from the BBC.

Blix just in!
Funny thing, Blix is now reporting via Fox news that they're not getting the cooperation expected!

Doh!

"Dumb"founded
I was involved in, what I thought could be, an intelligent debate on a forum I read quite often. It was made up of people from an international community in the tech field like myself. When I presented my view on the topic of Iraq I was shot down with remarks about President Bush being an "idiot," my arguments as "dumb" and "narrowminded" and the media in America being "conservitive." (I couldn't help but laugh out loud with the media comments . . .)

Apparently, according to the others, the media has brainwashed me into thinking the Bush administration is great and the war is unavoidable. When I asked them if the Iraqi people quoted here and here were also brainwashed all they did was skirt the issue and attack me, my country and anyone who dissagreed with cutting remarks on personal character.

I had to fight posting a similarly cutting remark. Instead I explained that it appread as though the very narrowmindedness they falted me and the articles I cited with could be found in themselves. They missed a great opportunity to debate their topic and I closed by explaining that if they couldn't handle the presentation of a differing view then I wasn't going to take my time and give it.

Did I do the right thing? Should I have listend to my gut and told them what I was really thinking? Who knows. I enjoy a good debate but when it turns to dirty mudslinging without intelligent views or responses then I guess it really was better to end it there.

It's a very grey day outside today . . .

Almost there
It being 2:17 or there abouts means that time is passing and there's only so much more left before the work day is through . . .

Intersting . . .
A long article on worldnetdaily that has quite a bit of information. Worth reading but the point is that Iraq, of course, has wmd and has no plans to destroy them willingly.

Humor
Well the analysts at CNN are apparently trying to raise the "surprisingly" low consumer confidence mentioned yesterday having headlines like today with the markets current situation which was, who coulda guessed, up at first and then down. . . Hewlett the dogs out.

As an aside, Dave Barry must be influenced by the analysts or visa versa as evidenced by this blog from just last evening. . .

Huh,
It appears as though my title (07734) is the zip code for Keansburg, New Jersey. Random find, thought I'd share. :)

also a coincidence, 07734 is a company involved with Flash Actionscripting and Photography. Two things I'm sorta kinda into.

Two meaningless but random craziness finds for the price of one.

Sleep
How is it that in college I could not sleep during the night, working on a paper or cramming for a test and be ready for the next day, but now I sleep almost regular hours and still feel like I could use a day or two more of rest . . .

Thanks
I don't get a chance to get online much during the evening hours so this will close me first day of ranting. Take care and good evening.

BBC
I don't know how this BBC story made it on the net. The use what anyone with any knowledge of the internet at all knows to be false to make a news story that sounds almost as horrific as the terror alert status descriptions . . . thus, blog security for me . . .

Alias?!
You know, the show Alias has it that this guy Rembaldi developed all these things and who knows what they all put together do. But last episode part of it was a neutron bomb they set off outside a Vatican embassy.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because this story/picture on the BBC about the US joining in the EU, China, Russia, Canada and Japan on a scientific project to creat a commercially usable fusion power source.

What a great goal, but why do I suddenly feel like part of some shadey aliance?

Also
Why was the news so quick to say that the Powell Asian trip was unsuccessful? He just got back. I have a feeling that we'll be seeing things in the news for the next few months that they were discussing today. The press feels they know everything and have all the answers but their slanted reporting will catch up with them if they don't change their wicked ways.

Of course
How on earth can we expect France to understand our petty worries about Iraq when they have the chef critics to worry about?!?

Dave Barry
He alone fully understands the pressures of a world gone mad . . .

the DOW
Well the DOW is up over 24 points and what are the analysts saying? NOTHING, leaving up the "Shell shocked!" report from earlier. It's no wonder why they're also reporting "surprisingly" low consumer confidence.

There's something inherently wrong about this . . .

Spam . . .
I know it's annoying and sometimes costly but . . . on those slow days its nice to know that there's some pimple faced kid out there trying to jam my email box to its memory limit with emails about viagra, pop stars, tennis players and another college degree . . . I think those trying to stop it should just admit that they're jealous because they don't get quite as many as some of the rest of us . . .

Something to think about.

From the WHAT THE HECK department
Apparently the Los Alamos facility is worse off than I would have suspected . . . is this Wired News story as frightening to you as it was to me?

Random Thoughts
Blo-og! Blo-og! Everyone loves to blog, everyone has a blog. It's Blo-og Blo-og, everyone loves to blog.

Sorry, had an episode from the old Ren and Stimpy show . . .

Welcome to my so called blog. My mind just cannot concentrate today, not that that is a reason for such absurdity but that's all I've got. :)

Confession
I'm not a switcher but I love macs . . . I grew up with macs in the house. My first program was written in BASIC on an Apple IIe . . .

funny thing is, because of work now, I have two Window$ running machines at home . . . I feel like I'm living a lie . . .

The world has truely gone mad.
A father shoots kids that kit his daughter with a snowball. Stock analysts say little when the stock goes up and shout and cry "Shell Shock" when it dips -38.73 (-0.49%) to a couple hundred below 8000 where it's been hovering for waaaay too long. People go into their place of work and shoot co-workers.


I can only think of two helpful things in times like these. Prayer and kevlar.

See-saw times . . .
Why is it that Bush wants war and his world wide opinions are, according to the news, mushy and Shroder opposes war with his inner being and opinions on him are also mushy. I know there's more to the issues than the war but it seems like the average world citizen would have a clue as to how the world feels.

Welcome to the start of 07734 World . . . the personal bloggings about my thoughts and opinions in a world gone mad.


Let me make my first post about the name since it probably wouldn't be understood otherwise. It is two fold. One part from the standard practice of computer science classes world wide (I assume) to force young programmers to make a programming outputting the phrase, "Hello World."


As for number 07734. Back many moons ago in middle school (7th grade or so) it was "the thing" to try and spell different words with the numbers if you turned the calculator upside down. 07734 happened to spell hELLO. (imagine the old style 4 here).


Thus came: 07734 World.