Violence again in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: “IT STARTED with burning tyres and rocks thrown by protesters. Then gun battles erupted between rival soldiers using heavy machine guns, mortars and rockets. The fighting at the weekend in Kinshasa shows that peace in Congo is not yet assured. The battle brought the centre of [...]
The other day, a friend of mine sent me a link to Malcom Gladwell’s most recent article, entitled “The Risk Pool“. I thought it fell short of Gladwell’s usual quality, and sent to my friend the e-mail that I’ve included below the fold. I’m not the first to get around to criticizing this article, though, [...]
Michael John McCormick January 3, 1945 – November 26, 2005 Editor’s dry humor made job fun Upbeat editor was beloved News man Funeral Home Obituary
Wilma: Highly uncertain, models generally forecasting significant weakening of the storm and a movement towards Southern Florida over the next three days. Might end up not being a big deal for Florida. The tropical wave over the Lesser Antilles: Could become a tropical cyclone, but again, highly uncertain. 24-Hour News Networks: We have a high [...]
At 1AM EDT, The National Hurricane Center issued a special advisory: “THIS SPECIAL ADVISORY IS TO UPDATE THE INITIAL AND THE FORECAST INTENSITY OF WILMA. AN AIR FORCE PLANE JUST MEASURED 162 KNOTS AT 850 MB AND A MINIMUM PRESSURE OF 901 MB IN A PINHOLE EYE. WILMA IS NOW A VERY STRONG CATEGORY FOUR [...]
“I don’t trust books. They’re all fact and no heart.” –Stephen Colbert “The Colbert Report” (pronounced with silent final consonants) debuted last night, and it looks like it will be worth watching, if not quite as much as its parent show, “The Daily Show“. Steven Colbert is hilarious, and some of the digs at various [...]
It’s halftime at the Northwestern-Purdue football game, and the Wildcats are up 28-9. Their record thus far doesn’t look at all special; assuming a win today, they’ll have a 4-2 record, 2-1 in the Big Ten. Their two losses, however, were a cliffhanger defeat by undefeated #10 Penn State and an impressive Arizona State team [...]
On one of those Monday afternoons where law is strangulation and nagging questions about the nature of the universe become an urgent priority, a gnat was flying around my desk and I realized I didn’t know if insects got tired or if their life span was too short for any kind of exhaustion short of [...]
A couple weeks ago, I said, “Of course, DDT was never banned, and has actually become far less effective due to mosquitos developing resistance to it.” This was in the context of the canard that environmentalists are responsible for malaria deaths due to the “ban” on DDT use. One of my friends asked me about [...]
Current reports suggest that the death toll from the recent 7.6 earthquake in Pakistan stands at over 18,000. What if it got Osama bin Laden? It’s unlikely, but consider that the shaking was reported to be very strong in Kabul. Chitral, Pakistan, one of the areas in which bin Laden is likely hiding, is closer: [...]