USATODAY Editorial

USATODAY.com - FAA failings in Swissair crash follow a too-familiar pattern

In December, the National Transportation Safety Board faulted the Federal Aviation Administration for contributing to the January 2000 crash of an Alaska Airlines jet that killed 88. The indictment of the FAA was not the first. In 1997, the safety board held the agency partly responsible for a 1996 crash in which 110 died when a ValuJet plane plummeted into the Florida Everglades.

Now a two-year USA TODAY investigation concludes that the FAA might have played a role in yet another airline disaster — a 1998 crash that claimed 229 lives when a Swissair jumbo jet plunged into the Atlantic Ocean.

In all three tragedies, the FAA botched its paramount mission: to make sure that those inspecting, maintaining and modifying commercial airliners do their jobs properly.

USATODAY Feature Article, 2/17/03

From Dave Barry's Blog

When people ask me, "Dave, where can I find a good Japanese-language educational video about the dangers of trying to hit a melon with a stick while blindfolded after narrowly escaping from a shark?" I always direct them here.

The Superbowl is Gay

listen to this

Google and Blogger

Wired News, Why Did Google Want Blogger

Google became the preeminent search engine by exploiting the structure of hyperlinks that make up the Web. Instead of using a simple keyword search, which is how most early search engines found their results, the company developed a proprietary system, called PageRank, which looks at hyperlinks as well as keywords to determine which pages are most popular on the Web.

The PageRank system combines keyword searches with a method of ranking the popularity of a target Web page based on the number of inbound links from other highly ranked pages.

That's where Blogger comes in. Weblogs are a rich source of links, which are posted in a fast, timely manner. Not only that, many weblogs are readable in RSS, or rich site summary, a standard syndication format that is easily parsed and indexed by search engine spiders, the bots that search engines use to crawl and index the Web.
"Web pages are hard to index without a standard structure," said Cleveland. "But Google can easily index RSS feeds."

Like most weblogging tools, Blogger is capable of exporting new content in RSS. Based on XML, RSS is an increasingly popular format used by thousands of technology-oriented news sites such as CNN, The New York Times, Salon, Slashdot and Wired News, and well as thousands of weblogs.

Cleveland said Google will likely use Blogger to develop sophisticated searches that utilize the rich metadata inherent in the RSS feeds from weblogs: who wrote what and when, what it linked to, what linked to it and its level of popularity with Web surfers.

Don's New Girlfriend

A Bird Story

DALLAS (AP) -- Prosecutors say a pet cockatoo that was killed while trying to protect its owner from an attacker produced evidence crucial in convicting the man's murderer.

Kevin Butler's 18-inch white-crested cockatoo, named Bird, flew at the Daniel Torres during the Christmas Eve 2001 attack and pecked him in the head, drawing blood. Torres wiped the blood and then touched a light switch, leaving his DNA at the crime scene, authorities said.

His DNA was also found on the handles of two knives used to attack Butler, prosecutor George West told jurors.

Torres was convicted Tuesday of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison for Butler's slaying in Pleasant Grove.

"This bird spoke; he spoke to us," West told jurors. "We know this bird will attack anybody who is attacking his owner. And who did he attack? Daniel Torres."

Torres had said in a confession that he stabbed the bird with a fork because it pecked him "all over my head." However, on the witness stand Tuesday, he denied the account and blamed the crime on his half-brother, who is to stand trial later. He had worked for Butler's pool company and had had a falling out with Butler, Torres said.

Defense attorney Phillip Linder told The Dallas Morning News he didn't think the cockatoo played into the jury's decision.

"I think that even without the bird -- the crime scene, the photos and the way the victim was bound -- it was a violent struggle," Linder said. "The state had a lot of evidence."

Google and Blogger, Xanidu, An Annotation Ecosystem, The Semantic Web, SETI for Meaning

Google and Larry Page: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong's Webjournal

Think about it, Google's king hit is PageRank which generates highly reliable sources of whatever kind of information you ask for, based on search terms generated by idiots like you and me. Bloggers have developed a whole new set of tools that is making the reliability of information much higher and is using massively distributed human resources to find and rank that information very quickly.

A story hits the net and the Blogosphere, using newsreaders, Blogs with Trackback links and the usual power rule processes of the network evaluates that information and weaves it into it proper place in the knowledge universe very quickly.

By making Blogs the preferred system for publishing information in the first place, Google will be able to help improve the weaving and ranking processes even more reliably and in the otherwise untrustworthy world of the Internet, that will keep them on top. While other search engines are still trying to figure out how to turn their spidered information into a business, Google is focusing on what really matters, and that is reliability. The Blogosphere will benefit because Google will fund the development of the tools and they will be open source because the more of them they have out there the more valuable they are, because, can I say it again, Google does not sell search, it sells reliability, and every blogger and surfer and webmaster in the world is contributing to that. We do not get free services from Google, we pay for them with our clicks on their linked information. Pretty soon we will also be paying with our Blogging and we will be paid back with reliable information. That's an information economy; the information is the currency, knowledge is the payoff and reliability is marketable to those whose reliance on it is highest.

USATODAY on Swissair 111

USATODAY.com - Doomed plane's gaming system exposes holes in FAA oversight
A small Las Vegas company with large ambitions and marquee investors sold U.S. regulators and Swissair on a video gaming system for airplanes. Until Flight 111 crashed, no one realized how many chances had been taken with passengers' safety.

Positive Feedback is So Gratifying

From: AutoResponder@headhunter.com
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2003 2:57 PM
To: Mike@fhgwgadshg.com
Subject: CV

Thank you for submitting your resume.
Your accomplishments are impressive.

We will contact you with the earliest appropriate opportunity.

Regards,

GOLF NEWS

Those who have golfed with me will understand the significance of the following:



Thanks to Stan, Rob, Art, Sandy and Ken Perlman (who were there) and the State of Florida!

The Question

Blog Links

Small worlds & LiveJournal (Matt Webb)

Like bloggers link like bloggers (Steve Himmer)

The weblog them, the weblog us (Tom Coates)

Internet Navigators Think Small (MSNBC)

Scarcity and power laws (Matt Webb)

Ecosystems, Power Laws, Counters (N.Z. Bear)

Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality (Clay Shirky)

Small Worlds (Duncan Watts)

Linked: The New Science of Networks (Albert-László Barabási)

Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks (Mark Buchanan)

Ubiquity: The Science of History, or Why the World Is Simpler Than We Think (Mark Buchanan)

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age

Dude, you're gonna get a dube!

Yahoo! News - Dell's 'Steven' Arrested in NY for Marijuana

Yet Another Bad Iraq Joke

President Bush and Colin Powell are sitting in a bar.
A guy walks in and asks the barman, "Isn't that Bush and Powell sitting over there?"
The barman says, "Yep, that's them."
So the guy walks over and says, "Wow, this is a real honor. What are you guys doing in here?"
Bush says, "We're planning WW III ".
And the guy says, "Really? What's going to happen?"
Bush says, "Well, we're going to kill 140 million Iraqis this time and one blonde with big tits.
The guy exclaimed, "A blonde with big tits? Why kill a blonde with big tits?
Bush turns to Powell, punches him on the shoulder and says,
"See, smart ass, I told you no one would worry about the 140 million Iraqis!"

previous Iraq joke

Books about Life, the Universe and All That (Now with links that work!)

The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension by Michio Kaku, Robert O'Keefe (Illustrator)
Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy by Kip S. Thorne, Stephen Hawking (Introduction)
Q Is for Quantum : An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics by John R. Gribbin, et al
A Brief History of Time by Stephen W. Hawking

Marty Leamy Joins Espial Group, Ottawa

Dear Friends & Colleagues:

I wanted to drop you a quick note to inform you that I have joined Espial Group Inc. as CEO. Espial is a private, well-funded software and services company based in Ottawa, Canada. Espial has done a phenomenal job at building out unique technology that basically acts as a framework for enhancing video content. Our client and server products leverage proven technology that provide real value to the interactive TV, Wireless and Telematics segments. Our customer base is fairly diverse and we typically work with large consumer electronic firms, set-top box manufacturers, and other device manufacturers such as Intel, IBM, Motorola, OnCommand, Sony, Kyocera, Philips, etc.

I am truly excited about this opportunity given my most recent experiences at OpenTV and Spyglass. I really believe in the potential of Espial and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Marty

Shuttle Columbia Lost

Colonel Rick Husband, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Anderson, Commander Laurel Clark, Captain David Brown, Commander William McCool, Dr. Kalpana Chawla, and Ilan Ramon a colonel in the Israeli air force.

From President Bush's Remarks:

All Americans today are thinking, as well, of the families of these men and women who have been given this sudden shock and grief. You're not alone. Our entire nation grieves with you. And those you loved will always have the respect and gratitude of this country.

The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.

In the skies today, we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see, there is comfort and hope.

In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."

The same creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, yet we can pray that all are safely home.

May God bless the grieving families, and may God continue to bless America.