Category: Interesting Reads

The challenge of selecting a jury for the “Scooter” Libby trial

With the trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby a few days underway now, lawyers for the defense are having a problem I hadn’t even considered – finding a jury with which they have a chance of getting Libby a not-guilty verdict or a hung jury. What little I’ve even considered the trial, I was focusing on the stories in the press over the initial leak, how Libby is perceived by potential jurors, and how much potential jurors knew about the story. A real problem for the defense comes down to finding jurors who are likely to believe Vice President Cheney if he is called as a witness.

“I am completely without objectivity. There is nothing you can say that would make me feel positively about President Bush.”*

Thus spake the eighth of nine prospective jurors reviewed by Judge Reggie Walton, Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and defense attorneys Ted Wells and William Jeffress today. She had indicated on her juror form she had some strong opinions about the Bush administration, and, queried in her turn by Judge Walton, she cast her eye over all assembled in the courtroom and declared herself.

“So, you are saying you do not believe you could render a fair and impartial verdict in this case, based on the evidence and according to my instructions to the jury prior to deliberations?,” Judge Walton followed.

“That’s right,” she responded, whereupon she was immediately excused from jury duty.

I hadn’t even thought about how the Bush/Cheney approval numbers would play into that. I know that’s mighty naïve of me, but I hadn’t given it much thought.

Continue reading “The challenge of selecting a jury for the “Scooter” Libby trial”

After lung cancer treatment, over 1/3 smokers go back to smoking

With a headline like that, there really isn’t much mystery to what the story is going to say, is there?

More than a third of smokers who had surgery to remove early stage lung cancer were smoking again within a year, a new study finds.

The study involved patients who were forced to quit smoking for surgery. Many were puffing away within two months of the surgery, and nearly half eventually resumed the habit.

[tags]Many smokers get lung cancer treatment – go back to smoking, Smoke/get treatment/start smoking again?[/tags]

Next-gen Hi-Def disc formats cracked?

We’ll let the torrent freaks give us the scoop on this:

The HD-DVD has been cracked, and high definition content is now being distributed freely over BitTorrent. We all knew this would happen sooner or later, looks it was “sooner”. The first HD-DVD to be uploaded to BitTorrent is Serenity, the Firefly movie.

One of the functions of these new formats is the ability to lock out players with known cracked keys.  I wonder if somehow this (mighty damn early) break of the “security” of the formats will lead to some players not working with future discs.  The crack occurred because those distributing the movies were able to find decryption keys for the movies, and I’m just wondering if this somehow will cause changes to keying in future movies that will break compatibility with current players.

[tags]Next-gen Hi-Def “security” cracked, Hi-Def movie rips being distributed on via torrents[/tags]

What a brilliant idea

Dear {$diety}, the more I post, the more I realize I need to add a “Stupid” category for entries here. The latest news article which would make the category is I had it is this bit of insight into the 2nd amendment (and a shorter link if that one is broken) from the Detroit-based think tank Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Let’s see what ISPU tells us about our 2nd amendment.

The idea of terrorist cells operating clandestinely in the United States, quietly amassing handguns and assault rifles, and planning suicide shooting rampages in our malls, is right out of Tom Clancy’s most recent novel. If not for the fact that the 9/11 attacks were also foreshadowed in a Clancy novel, I would have given the idea no further thought.

However, rather than facing this potential threat publicly, the Bush administration is only focused on terrorist attacks involving missiles, nuclear devices and biological weapons. Stopping terrorists with WMDs is a good thing, but what about the more immediate threat posed by terrorists with guns? The potential threat of terrorist attacks using guns is far more likely than any of these other scenarios.

Continue reading “What a brilliant idea”

City of Heroes – an almost numbers free MMO

I’m a gamer. Perhaps you’ve picked up on that if you know me in real life, have read my meaningless posts for long, or been in some of the forums where I post. When people ask me what games I play, my answer for well over two years has been City of Heroes (and along with it, City of Villains, although I’m not much for playing the bad guy). I like the super-hero theme, I have a lot of folks I know in game now that I enjoy teaming with, I find that I can have fun playing solo or teamed, I don’t feel obligated to join 120-person raids (something folks in World of Warcraft, and I believe Everquest, know all too well), and I can sit and play with my kids since it isn’t a bloody and excessively violent game. If you aren’t a City of Heroes/Villains player and you’ve made it before, you’ll probably want to skip the rest, as it only applies to folks playing those games.

Continue reading “City of Heroes – an almost numbers free MMO”

The Chronicles of George

I realize there are not many techies left who haven’t read The Chronicles of George, but if you happen to be one of those techies, get over there and read some. This site is a collection of support desk tickets recorded by the hapless site subject, George, as received by one of the techies who had to work them. A lot of identifying information has been removed, but the value of the tickets remains intact with what is left.

Here are some sample tickets – George’s ticket entries are in bold, while the site’s maintainer’s comments are standard text.

[Unknown user] is getting explannation mark on her anti norton virus service

We begin with a lovely example of how George’s tickets usually are. Note the strange spacing, the awful grammar, and general weirdness. However, I can’t fault him terribly over-much, since there are some days I wish we really did have an anti-Norton virus.

[Unknown user] called and said [other user] is havening problems printing ,he says the firing is saying canceled printings.

One of the printers is acting weird. George is typing weird. Note the use of the word “havening”. This is a word that George uses often–hey, at least he’s consistent. I believe “firing” refers to the Fiery printer controllers we have at work, but who the hell knows?

she is getting error message that say undliveriable messages,her hole area cannot send externail emails

Oh, man. This one gets my vote for “Best George Ticket of All Time”. My hole area can’t send e-mails either, but I don’t consider that a problem. Perhaps I’m just different.

My older brother introduced me to The Chronicles of George many, many years ago. I periodically revisit the site just to get some laughs again. The site maintainer also points out that George was born and raised in Houston, TX and is a native English speaker, so you can’t blame this on a foreign language to English issue. Trust me – if you’ve ever worked in tech support, you can appreciate the troubles involved in working these tickets, and will probably get quite a few laughs from them.

[tags]Chronicles of George, The joys of tech support[/tags]

John McCain – new posterboy for “Flip-flopper” designation?

Have the Democrats, after many Presidential campaigns with candidates labeled flip-floppers or similar, finally found a break from the designation while a conservative worms into that position now? John McCain certainly looks to be front-runner for the flip-flopper title as we start seeing Presidential campaigns start up.

  • McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.
  • McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.
  • McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.
  • And now McCain has gone from insisting that the war in Iraq would be easy to insisting that he’s always said the war in Iraq would be hard. And yet, you’ll still find most of the political establishment arguing that McCain’s strength as a candidate is his credibility.

That’s just a sampling of the switches McCain has made. Of course, he’ll not be labeled a flip-flopped for them, because the conservatives only seem to use that and similar terms against liberals, whether or not the label is actually accurate.

I should point out here that I like John McCain. He’s one of the few politicians that I have any inkling of respect for. And I really don’t think having a change of opinion or taking a new stance after learning more about a topic is a bad thing. But I think every candidate running for President needs very careful scrutiny, and his actions deserve the same review Kerry’s actions got which lead to his being inaccurately called a flip-flopper. I still expect McCain to be a strong candidate for the conservatives, but he needs a sharp review the same as any other politician.

[tags]McCain fighting for flip-flopper title[/tags]

15 milestones to modern medicine

Because you never know when you will end up on Jeopardy, I like to point out the things I find which can fill your head with the useless trivia you need to succeed. The latest of these findings is this write-up on The Guardian of the British Medical Journal’s top 15 milestones on the path to modern medicine.

1 Anaesthesia

Revolutionised surgery. By the end of the 19th century, anaesthesia had become a symbol for the wider humanitarian movement. It remains the most vivid example of medicine’s capacity to diminish human suffering.

Unfortunately, it has no lasting effect on diminishing human suffering due to marriage.

7 Germ theory

Realisation that germs carried on the hands of doctors could transmit lethal infections to women in labour by Ignaz Semmelweis in Vienna in 1847 became the accepted germ theory of disease. At the end of the 19th century, infection caused 30% of deaths. By the end of the 20th century it caused less than 4%.

I just thought that was a pretty cool statistic.

11 The pill

The oral contraceptive brought about a social as well as a medical revolution and had huge benefits for women. It was the first potent drug to be taken by millions of healthy people and the active ingredient is virtually unchanged.

Thanks to the pill, both times my wife and I have sex (with each other) every year, her chances of pregnancy are less. Cool. (via Sigma Xi’s Science in the news newsletter – subscribe and you can smartify yourself like I have)

[tags]Modern medicine milestones[/tags]

Bush best and worst of 2006

The Associated Press has done a poll of Americans to determine the biggest villain and biggest hero of the past year. In a comfortable lead, President Bush took the villain of the year. However, in another easy win, President Bush took hero of the year. I’m surprised by half the results, given how bad a President he has been in my eyes. But clearly at least 30% of the country has a different view of the man than I have.

Bad guy of 2006: President Bush. Good guy of 2006: President Bush. When people were asked in an AP-AOL News poll to name the villains and heroes of the year, Bush topped both lists, in a sign of these polarized times.

. . .

Bush won the villain sweepstakes by a landslide, with one in four respondents putting him at the top of that bad-guy list. When people were asked to name the candidate for villain that first came to mind, Bush far outdistanced even Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader in hiding; and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who is scheduled for execution.

The president was picked as hero of the year by a much smaller margin. In the poll, 13 percent named him as their favorite while 6 percent cited the troops in Iraq.

. . .

Bush was the choice of 43 percent of Democrats for villain, and 27 percent of Republicans for hero.

And while we’re looking at the best and worst, why not see what else the AP poll covered?

Continue reading “Bush best and worst of 2006”

Long term study: *STILL* no cell-phone = brain cancer link

How long have we heard that using a cell phone will give you brain cancer? Many well-run studies have shown that to be false. Still, there are plenty who won’t believe that. Not that it will sway the nutjobs, but there is yet another study showing no connection between cell phone use and brain cancer over the long term.

The Danes, relatively inactive on the world scene since their conquest of Greenland and invention of that delightful pastry, have conducted one of the best health studies yet revealing that there’s no apparent link between cancer and cell phones.

Researchers at the Danish Cancer Institute (who, remember, don’t want you to get cancer) followed more than 420,000 cell phone users, nearly a tenth of the Danish population, and found that their cell phone habits did not increase their risk of any type of cancer. The results were published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Brain cancers can take many years to develop. The most reassuring aspect of the massive Danish study is that some of the cancer-free subjects have been using cell phones for more than 20 years.

Note that this does not say people don’t become stupid, rude, inattentive, distracted, nor bad drivers when talking on the cell phone. It just says you won’t get brain cancer just because you are a stupid, rude , inattentive, distracted, bad driver talking on a cell phone. It’s all those other things you get/become from talking on the cell phone that will kill you.

[tags]Cell phones *still* not causing brain cancer, Another study shows no cell-phone/brain-cancer connection[/tags]

History of the world according to student bloopers

Way back when I was in college, a friend showed me this assemblage of history that made for a great way to misunderstand the world. I recently saw reference to it elsewhere and decided I should post it here so others might enjoy.

One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following “history” of the world from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States, from eight grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.

. . .

Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fougth with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.

. . .

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.

. . .

Abraham Lincoln became America’s greatest Precedent. Lincoln’s mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, “In onion there is strength.” Abraham Lincoln write the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also signed the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a sup- posedl insane actor. This ruined Booth’s career.

[tags]History of the world according to student bloopers[/tags]

Republicans demand minority rights they previously denied Democrats

After you control the Congress for a while, you get a little cocky when the other side takes control don’t you? While the Republicans controlled things, the Democrats tried to get through a minority bill of rights which would offer some assurances of balance and protection for the rights of the minority party. Now that the Democrats hold the majority in both sections of Congress, the Republicans decide that minority bill of rights is a good idea.

Thirty-one-year-old Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is not a large man, standing perhaps 5 feet 3 inches tall in thick soles. But he packed a whole lot of chutzpah when he walked into the House TV gallery yesterday to demand that the new Democratic majority give the new Republican minority all the rights that Republicans had denied Democrats for years.

“The bill we offer today, the minority bill of rights, is crafted based on the exact text that then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi submitted in 2004 to then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert,” declared McHenry, with 10 Republican colleagues arrayed around him. “We’re submitting this minority bill of rights, which will ensure that all sides are protected, that fairness and openness is in fact granted by the new majority.”

Omitted from McHenry’s plea for fairness was the fact that the GOP had ignored Pelosi’s 2004 request — while routinely engaging in the procedural maneuvers that her plan would have corrected. Was the gentleman from North Carolina asking Democrats to do as he says, not as he did?

In other words “We wanted to grab as much power and control as possible while in the majority, but since we’re in the minority now we think that things need to be more even between the majority and minority.” Expect this to get shot down, and when control changes the entire play will run again with the end result being again nothing changes. Fucking politicians.

[tags]Republicans want rights they denied Democrats in previous terms[/tags]