2004 Joseph Goebbels Awards
Thomas Sowell: 2004 Joseph Goebbels Awards
Has there been a tragicomic character in recent memory as simultaneously compelling, disturbing, and paradoxical as Mike Tyson? If you haven't been tracking the escapades of the former heavyweight champion and ex-con, he recently lost two bouts in a row. The latter, against journeyman Danny Williams, was specifically designed to catapult him back into the ranks of contending heavyweights.
| ...The last time I'd met Tyson was more than a year ago, after Frank Bruno was taken to hospital to help him deal with his own demons.
Tyson says he cried for his old foe at the time and is glad when I tell him Frank is on the mend. "That makes me happy," he says. "The worst thing that can happen to you is for you to lose your mental powers, especially when you've got a wife and kids." And he should know. Muttering something about a boxer's biggest fight coming after he leaves the ring, Tyson then comes over all philosophical. "Dying can't be as bad as living," he muses. "There's no way that dying can be as bad as living. But while you're living you have to live. "I don't know what I'm doing. I just live, I guess, get some food. But I don't cook. I go to restaurants every night." Asked how he fills his days, he replies: "I don't do anything. My life sucks." ... |
Daniel Pipes:
I frequently meet with disbelief when I explain that the Islamist goal is to take over the United States and replace the Constitution with the Koran. Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and here is that picture, culled from "The American Muslim" website:
![]() The Arabic written across the United States is the basmalah, usually translated into English as "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate." This Koranic invocation, the authoritative Encyclopaedia of Islam (vol. 1, p. 1084) informs us, "at the beginning of every important act, calls down the divine blessing on this act and consecrates it." It also bears noting that "The American Muslim" website portrays itself as "providing a balanced, moderate, alternative voice focusing on the spiritual, dimension of Islam rather than the more often heard voice of extreme political Islamism." Sounds great, yet this website includes precisely such voices of "extreme political Islamism" in the form of Yahiya Emerick and Ibrahim Hooper. In keeping with the above graphic, Emerick is author of an essay titled "How to Make America an Islamic Nation" and Hooper has stated "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future..." |
This interview with Steven Vincent, author of In the Red Zone, is enlightening. Vincent is a former art critic turned war journalist by the events of 9/11. His book covers his experiences during two separate trips to Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
| ...Jeff Harrell: When, after all the planning and the long journey, you finally made it to Baghdad, were you disappointed by what you found? Your descriptions of the city in In the Red Zone are unsentimental: It’s an unlovely city, you say, choked with smog and littered with garbage. What was it like to arrive in such a place?
Steven Vincent: Actually, I was pleasantly surprised. I’d packed mosquito netting, water purification tablets, protein bars and a set of silverware, all sorts of survival equipment, as if I were heading to Mogadishu. What I found was a bustling city with markets overflowing with food and bottled water, not to mention countless restaurants and “kabob stands.” (Iraq has never in its history suffered famine.) The harshness of the environment — the “unloveliness” of the smog and garbage (and, I must say, many Iraqi people) — didn’t affect me until the novelty of simply being there faded. To be in a place like Baghdad — or perhaps any storied place — is to experience the microcosmic and macrocosmic of life simultaneously. By that I mean every detail, even the smallest, is fascinating — the architecture, the way people look and talk, the taxi cabs and heat, trying to speak Arabic and learn what to order on the menu. Then there is the overwhelming sense of the past and present. I remember walking at twilight down a busy shopping street just as the lights switched on and a muezzin began calling from a mosque. Right at that moment, two American Humvees rumbled past, each with a soldier standing and surveying the scene. They passed a grove of palms, and the mixture of the light, the crowds, the muezzin’s call and the military vehicles transfixed me. This is significant, something told me. For good or ill, this is history... Steven Vincent: ...I’m frequently asked, how can a nation cobbled together by Winston Churchill from disparate religious and ethnic groups possibly form a democracy? In response, I mention the 13 colonies before the Revolution. In retrospect, they strike us as rather homogenous — aside, of course, from the issue of slavery. But to the colonies themselves, they were wildly different, split by religious, regional and economic interests. Somehow they pulled it together. And in fact, a pluralistic society like Iraq is probably the most suited for democracy. Within the limitations of a constitution, various parties of Shia and Sunnis and Kurds must dicker and horse-trade and compromise among themselves. Because of these conflicting interests, no one party can accumulate total power — a system of checks and balances, in other words... Steven Vincent: ...Say a foreign power invades a nation, topples a heinous dictator and attempts to midwife the first democracy this nation has ever had. Are they "occupiers" or "liberators?" Are they "occupying" the country, or “reconstructing” it? Are they "imposing" democracy, or "assisting its birth?"... ...To describe the Coalition as "occupiers" legitimizes those who take up arms against them. We oppose the “Nazi occupation” of France, and admire the "French resistance" — while those who assist the Germans become "collaborators." "Guerillas" are brave fighters risking their lives to overthrow imperialism in the name of national liberation; "paramilitaries" are terrorists seeking to re-establish a right-wing tyranny. One side constellates images of resourceful rebels — from the colonial Minutemen to the Viet Cong to Star Wars’ "Rebel forces" — the other conjures imperialist oppressors, storm troopers, Darth Vader’s minions. Somehow, we have allowed the press and academia to reverse the definition, permitting them to call fascists and criminal thugs "freedom fighters" while the true Iraqi resistance become members of the "American-backed government"... Here’s a question I’d like to put to Ted Rall and Michael Moore: could you stand in front of the families of the election workers killed in Baghdad and tell them that their loved ones were "collaborators" killed by the "Iraqi resistance?" ... |
Interesting... but I would think there would more compelling and profitable uses for 'mechs' than 21st century jousting matches.
| The NMX04-1A is the first attempt by Neogentronyx to create a fully functional mech. At 18ft tall it is a biped (walks upright on two legs), and has two arms, it is humanoid in appearance. Walking as we do it will be able to walk much faster due mainly to the distance between its strides, it is not intended for use in the civilian world as such machines would pose a danger to those around them as well as the risk already taken on by the pilots themselves.
Initially our mechs will be used for entertainment purposes and will eventually be fitted to fight in a large arena designed to accommodate these great machines. This is of course after prototype testing has proven that such a thing is feasible which we believe it will. The pilot control is a special system called mech interface manual integration control (mimic) system, designed specifically to allow the mech to emulate any movement done by the controlling pilot of the mecha. Safety features include a pilot harness, helmet, suspension backboard, shock absorption, external sensors, and force-back pads, so the pilot can feel what the mecha would feel were it capable of feeling anything at all, a completely encompassing steel cage which will protect against falls and plating which will protect against any possible penetration into the pilot control area. In an arena setting there will be several blunt weapons designed for the mecha to be able to wield against opposition. No sharp penetrating weapons will be allowed in the arena as death and injury are not to be a part of the sport. The only thing being damaged and disabled will be the mechs. That makes for a rather expensive sport, but entertaining nonetheless... |
T has another entertaining step-by-step breakdown of an accident that he narrowly avoided during the
I was surprised -- but not shocked -- to read the following paragraph in the AP news story regarding the rocket attack on US troops in Mosul. Slobodan Lekic reports:
| ...A radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility for the attack — the latest in a week of deadly strikes across Iraq that highlighted the unwavering power of the insurgents in the run-up to the Jan. 30 national elections... |
By the time I got back to our compound it was all over the news. It seemed like the thing had just happened when in reality I had been neck deep in it for several hours. And there it was on TV. Frankly, it's kind of a blur.
The day began early as I didn't sleep very well last night. Once I was awake I decided not to just lay there and stare at the darkness so I got up, got dressed, shaved and headed into the TOC, the heart of what goes on. In the TOC (Tactical Operations Center) they monitor several different radio nets to keep abreast of what is happing in the area. It's the place to be if you want up to the minute information. When I arrived it was fairly calm. I made small talk with the guys there and sipped that first cup of morning coffee. The day was clear and there was very little going on, or so it seemed. A very short while later we received the initial reports. In this area there are several "camps" or "posts" that house the various combat and support units that do the day to day fighting and working around here. The first report said that a mortar had just hit one of the nearby chow halls during the middle of lunch (I'm on GMT so my morning is actually the middle of the day). It's called a MASCAL or Mass Casualty event and it's where the rubber meets the road in military ministry. They said there were approximately 10 casualties. That was the extent of it so I kind of filed it away in the back of my mind and continued to sip my coffee. The next report wasn't so good. 10 dead and approximately 50 wounded. They were being transported to the Combat Surgical Hospital down the street. The Chaplain at the CSH is a good guy and I knew he'd be in need of help so I woke my assistant and we rushed to the hospital. I didn't expect what I saw. The scene was little more than controlled chaos. Helicopters landing, people shouting, wounded screaming, bodies everywhere. As the staff began to triage the dead and wounded I found the chaplain and offered my assistance. He directed me to where he needed me and I dove in. I would be hard pressed to write about every person I had the opportunity to pray with today but I will try to relate a few. I found "Betty" on a stretcher being tended by nurses. I introduced myself and held her hand. She looked up at me and said, "Chaplain, am I going to be alright?" I said that she was despite the fact that I could see she had a long road to recovery ahead of her. Most of her hair had been singed off. Her face was burnt fairly badly, although it didn't look like the kind of burns that will scar. What I do know is that it was painful enough to hurt just by being in the sun. I prayed with Betty and moved on. "Ilena" (a made up name. She spoke very softly and had a thick accent so I couldn't really hear her) had been hit by a piece of shrapnel just above her left breast causing a classic sucking chest wound. The doctors said she had a hemothorax (I think that's what they called it) which basically meant her left lung was filling with blood and she was having a very hard time breathing. For the next 20 minutes I held her hand while a doctor made an incision in her left side, inserted most of his hand and some kind of medical instrument and then a tube to alleviate the pressure caused by the pooling blood. It was probably the most medieval procedure I have ever been privy to. In the end she was taken to ICU and will be OK... |
The always insightful Dan Bricklin (co-inventor of the spreadsheet with Bob Frankston) recently wrote an essay analyzing major accidents (e.g., Three Mile Island) and the catastrophic terrorist attack on the WTC. Read the whole thing. But if you don't have time, the summary is excellent advice for all who create systems upon which the population depends... and software developers especially.
| There are principles that may be gleaned by looking at Normal Accident Theory and the 9/11 Commission Report that are helpful for software development.
This essay covers a wide range of topics. It introduces "Normal Accident Theory", looks at some of the aspects of a major terrorist attack, and proposes some areas for design that are suggested by the results of that attack. The original goal, though, was to come up with some principles that could be applied to making software that fits with the long-term needs of society. Here are some of those principles: Instrument the sub-systems and components so that failures can be detected and so that behavior can be monitored when there are changes. There is a need to know "what is going on". Examine failures and share what is found with others so that there is learning. Try to keep sub-systems loosely coupled, the interfaces understandable, and the intermediate steps comprehensible. Allow for, and anticipate, improvisation. The design of instrumentation and the coupling of sub-systems can make improvisation easier or harder. Those who deal with changes may not be the ones for whom the designers planned nor who were pre-trained to deal with those changes. This affects the design of instrumentation, coupling, and documentation. Generic, "global" resources help and should be able to be used as part of instrumentation and improvisation. |
...Nextel is unique among service providers because it has an entirely separate special cellular network that has its own frequencies and equipment in addition to the normal cell network shared with other providers. This network is based on Motorola's Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) and makes Direct Connect possible. It uses the 800 MHz portion of the radio spectrum assigned to specialized mobile radio (SMR) service. Nextel has purchased a large segment of these frequencies in a significant number of the national and international cellular service markets...
...When you make a Direct Connect call to someone, here's what happens: * You hit the Direct Connect button, which is configured with the number(s) of the person (or group) you are calling. * Your phone establishes a session with the Nextel iDEN-based network. * The network determines that this is a dispatch call (Direct Connect) instead of an interconnect call (a normal cell phone call). * The network then determines if it is a one-to-one or a group call. If it is a group call, the network duplicates the digital voice packets for each phone in the group. * The network routes the packets to the phone (or phones) of the person (or group) you are calling. * Their phone alerts them that they have a Direct Connect call. * They answer the call by pressing the Talk button. Whoever is pushing the button, whether a one-to-one or group call, is the speaker. * The call is completed and everyone disconnects... |
Science-fiction buffs seeing the military's armed Talon robot for the first time can't help but make comparisons to famous movie robots...
...The Talon reminds this reporter of one of the more menacing robots of the movies, ED-209, which goes berserk in the 1987 film "RoboCop." What makes the Talon important is that it's the first ground robot to carry arms. "It's a bit of a turning point," Shachtman said. "It's a step everyone knew was coming at some point. It's still a little surprising when it finally hits." Luckily, there's no danger of the Talon pulling an ED-209. It's teleoperated, meaning it's run by a human operator, much like a radio-controlled toy car you might buy your child for Christmas. With one big difference: That toy car can't cut a bus in half. Talon robots can carry M240 or M249 machine guns, Barrett 50-caliber rifles, 40-millimeter grenade launchers and anti-tank rocket launchers... |
20)Linda Ronstadt
It might seem to be a stretch to put washed-up singer Linda Ronstadt who was once famous for singing "I Love Rock and Roll"...wait, that's not it...oooh, ooooh, I remember, it was "The Warrior"...no, that's not it either...well whatever she sang, she does deserve to make the list. While in Las Vegas (where washed up singers crawl up on stage to wait for their careers to die), Ronstadt was unceremoniously fired after causing a mini-riot among her unhappy fans by plugging Michael Moore's hideous propaganda piece, "Fahrenheit 9/11," on stage. While that's not all that big of a deal, she popped off a quote in the aftermath of this controversy that was such a perfect example of liberal condescension that she just had to make the list. As you read this quote, remember that we're talking about someone who probably has less fans left than Milli Vanilli at this point and then picture her saying... Defining Quote: "It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know." -- Linda Ronstadt ... 19) John Zogby For reasons that are hard to fathom, pollster John Zogby opined time and time again, all year long, to anyone who would listen, that John Kerry was going to beat George Bush. Why did a pollster who's supposed to be neutral want to so publicly take a partisan line in a race that stayed very close throughout the year? Why did Zogby continue to declare that Kerry would win even as his own polls showed Kerry losing? Who knows? Then election day rolled around and Zogby actually waited until after the first exit polls to give his final prediction: that Kerry would wipe the floor with Bush by beating him 311-213 in electoral votes with Colorado and Nevada too close to call. Of course, he was wrong: Bush won 286-252. Then after the election, Zogby started dabbling in conspiracy theories to explain why his polls were off...again. Zogby polling communications director, Shawnta Watson Walcott, even joined "a group of liberal Democrats at a faux congressional hearing focused on whether fraud influenced the Nov. 2 outcome". Hey Zogby, it's bad enough that your polls stink and that you essentially acted like the public polling arm of the Democratic Party for all of 2004, but how low are you going to stoop to try to explain away your own bias & incompetence? "We have received thousands of letters and phone calls regarding irregularities - many of which center on early exit polling results that were uncharacteristically inaccurate in several battleground states; questionable practices at polling stations that may have resulted in votes not being counted accurately; and in Ohio, as with other swing states, the automated Diebold machines were particularly disturbing because they offered no voting receipts. It is with this intention that we recommend that a blue ribbon bipartisan panel be developed to investigate the allegations discussed here today." -- Shawnta Watson Walcott, communications director for Zogby International... |
Hmmm. This is definitely a game plan that many midwestern cities are missing... and should embrace. This is an excerpt of an interview with former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki.
| John: This is not related to the book, but here in Tampa Bay we have a "high tech" corridor called the I-4 Corridor, but it isn't experiencing rapid growth at the moment. Are you familiar with this sector, and if so, or if not, what do you think it would take to attract more tech businesses to the Central and West Central Florida regions?
Guy: I'm not familiar with the corridor, but I'm asked similar questions by many regions in the world. My answer is always the same: a great engineering school. You get great engineers, you'll get great tech companies. The venture capitalists, lawyers, accountants, and rest of the infrastructure will follow. This isn't a chicken-and-egg question. There is definitely an order: great engineers cause great tech businesses. Most people don't adopt my advice because it's cooler and more politically acceptable to do something like a tax credit, venture capital fund, or sponsored incubator. My education recommendation will take twenty years to bear fruit. Silicon Valley, as we know it, started in the late 20s. |
I'd like to introduce my completely unique Blog Power Rankings using a proprietary statistical technique that may or may not involve Google's News search.
|
1) 21 InstaPundit 2) 7 Hugh Hewitt 2) 7 Daily Kos 4) 6 Powerline 5) 4 Little Green Footballs 6) 2 Belmont Club 7) 1 Captain's Quarters 7) 1 Wizbang |