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Went ahead and ordered the Great Big Bertha II Driver with an 11 degree loft, along with the matching 3 and 5 Woods along with a larger bag from Dick's Sporting Goods.
Also snagged the 2 Iron and 3 Iron for my 2002 Big Bertha Irons so that I have a complete bag. Definately have to continue with my lessons now.
Two days of golf has left me with a sore shoulder and feeling fairly tired today.
On Friday, took a personal day and played at The New England Country Club and then yesterday at Poquoy Brook.
Golf has finally become a hobby. After some successful stuff at work, I treated myself to new irons from Galyan's - went with the Big Bertha Irons in Graphite. Bit pricey, but wonderful clubs.
Looking now at fairway woods, I am pretty fond of the Great Big Bertha II line, but I need to demo them first. Perhaps a new driver in the spring.
Definately need to continue with lessons though.
Simply Amazing.
"The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]
On the first anniversary of the attacks, Carbonera allowed himself to shed some tears at the six memorial services he attended. This year, he plans to spend the day with his colleagues at the airport command station, where a private memorial service will be held beside the two-month-old plaque just outside the front door of the building. It was paid for with $50 donations from each officer at the station.
The granite plaque lists the names of all the Port Authority officers and one K9-unit dog killed that day, alongside the words NEVER FORGOTTEN BY THE JFK COMMAND and sits atop a rusty chunk of one of the steel beams that used to hold up the towers. Every day, Carbonera places his hand on the names before he goes through the doors to work. "It's my way of saying I remember you." []MSNBC]
So, she says it's time she goes
but wanted to be sure I know
she hopes we can be friends
I think, yeah, I guess we can say I
but didn't think to ask her why
she blocked her eyes and drew the curtains
with knots I've got yet to untie...
what if I were Romeo in black jeans
what if I was Heathcliff, it's no myth
maybe she's just looking for
someone to dance with
See, it was just too soon to tell
and looking for some parallel
can be an endless game
We said goodbe before hello
my secrets she will never know
and if I dig a hole to China
I'll catch the first junk to SoHo
(chorus)
Sometime from now you'll bow to pressure
some things in life you cannot measure by degrees
I'm between the poles and the equator
don't send no private investigator to find me please
'less he speaks Chinese
and can dance like Astaire overseas
The Navy announced late yesterday that it had relieved Capt. Ruth A. Cooper of her command of Naval Station Newport because of alleged mismanagement at the military base.
Rear Adm. Joseph A. Walsh, commander of Navy Region Northeast, removed her "after losing confidence in Cooper's judgment and ability to command," according to a statement the Navy released. She has been temporarily reassigned to a position with Navy Region Northeast. [Providence Journal]
Brought tears to my eyes...
Travel day today. Leaving shortly to fly back to California. I'll try to answer or follow up on as many emails as I can along the way. There are hundreds of meaningful ones, including more condolances than I'm willing to count.
The memorial service for Mom was, of course, beautiful. I'll miss her "turribly," as she used to say. And love her bunches, as I still hear her saying.
What amazes me, in the retrospect I am now gaining on her life, is that she lived it completely both in the energy she put into every moment of it, and in the fact that she had done everything she had wanted with her ninety years.
So many lives end too soon with too much left undone; or linger far beyond the point when they cease being the complete person everybody remembers and wishes were either still here or mercifully gone. Mom's life was like a symphony in three long movements that roughly corresponded to her roles as a young woman, a mother, and a grandmother. Last week she performed the finale of her third movement, closing with a sweet sustained chord.
How many of us will be blessed to live out a life like that? Or to be taught how to live by one of the good rare souls who does?
I'm glad the way Mom passed gave me even as painful as it was for her to struggle, almost successfully, to overcome the damage done to her body a chance to introduce the world to one of the best examples of a good life, well lived. If she had died any faster or slower, all this sharing might never have happened, simply because I would not have found the time. She made it for me, and for the rest of us.
At her memorial service I said Mom's simple prairie philosophy was the one Garrison Keillor summarizes at the close of his daily Writer's Almanac: Be well, do good work, and stay in touch.
Nobody did any of them better.
And now, as she so often said, it's time to get back to work [Doc Searls Weblog]
Appears that we have mice again in the house. They chewed up some bread the other day and last night made war on some toilet paper stored in the upstairs bathroom. Galadriel has been on the prowl most nights, which is never a good sign. Generally, she sleeps near my feet.
Dug out the old mousetraps and set them in the kitchen and the bathroom but unfortunately nothing came true.
But last night, after the toilet paper escapade, I set one in the bathroom cabinet. Less than an hour later, I had one. Whee!.
Traps are reset. Fingers are crossed.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Violent and property crimes dipped in 2002 to their lowest levels since records started being compiled 30 years ago, and have dropped more than 50 percent in the last decade, the Justice Department reported Sunday.
The annual survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics identified about 23 million crime victims last year, down slightly from the year before and far below the 44 million recorded when studies began in 1973.
The rate of violent crimes -- rapes, robberies and assaults -- was about 23 victims for every 1,000 U.S. residents 12 or older last year. That compares with 25 victims per 1,000 in 2001 and 50 in 1993.
For property crimes such as burglary and car theft, the rate was 159 crimes per 1,000 last year, down from 167 the previous year and 319 in 1993.
The study examined property and violent crimes except murder, which is measured separately by the FBI. Preliminary FBI statistics for 2002 released in June -- based on reports from police across the country -- reported a 0.8 percentage point rise in the murder rate compared with 2001.
The Justice Department survey, however, found continuing decreases in every major property and violent crime, crossing all household income, racial and ethnic lines. Crime is down in cities, suburbs and rural areas. [New York Times]
I was standing by my window,
On one cold and cloudy day
When I saw that hearse come rolling
For to carry my mother away
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, lord, by and by
There’s a better home a-waiting
In the sky, lord, in the sky
I said to that undertaker
Undertaker please drive slow
For this lady you are carrying
Lord, I hate to see here go
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, lord, by and by
There’s a better home a-waiting
In the sky, lord, in the sky
Oh, I followed close behind her
Tried to hold up and be brave
But I could not hide my sorrow
When they laid her in the grave
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, lord, by and by
There’s a better home a-waiting
In the sky, lord, in the sky
I went back home, my home was lonesome
Missed my mother, she was gone
All of my brothers, sisters crying
What a home so sad and lone
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, lord, by and by
There’s a better home a-waiting
In the sky, lord, in the sky
We sang the songs of childhood
Hymns of faith that made us strong
Ones that mother maybelle taught us
Hear the angels sing along
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, lord, by and by
There’s a better home a-waiting
In the sky, lord, in the sky
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, lord, by and by
There’s a better home a-waiting
In the sky, lord, in the sky
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, seeking to increase the nation's combat power without hiring more troops, is poised to order a sweeping review of Pentagon policies, officials say. It will include everything from wartime mobilization and peacekeeping commitments, to reservist training and incentives for extended duty.
A senior Defense Department official said Mr. Rumsfeld would order the Pentagon's senior leadership, both civilian and military, to rethink ways to reduce stress on the armed forces, fulfill recruitment and retention goals and operate the Pentagon more efficiently.
In essence, Mr. Rumsfeld will ask the service secretaries and chiefs and his under secretaries to address how the Pentagon can more efficiently use its troops at a time when the armed forces are spread thin by global deployments. [New York Times]
BOSTON -- Former priest John Geoghan, a convicted child molester who became a central figure in the Catholic church's sex abuse scandal, has been killed in prison, a state public safety spokesman said Saturday.
Geoghan was injured in an incident with another inmate about noon and died shortly after being taken to Leominster Hospital, said Department Of Public Safety spokesman David Shaw.
The other inmate had been isolated and the incident was under investigation.
The church abuse scandal, which has had repercussions worldwide, broke in early 2002 with revelations that the church had shuttled Geoghan from parish to parish despite warnings about his behavior. [Boston Globe]
Went to the driving range today here in Taunton for the second time in a week - was anothe good outing. Only hit bad balls about ten times out of 250 balls. Good swing, still got a nasty slice on the driver though..
Damn it feels good to finally be making good contact with my driver though.
Watched it last night. Probably could have been a great movie in the way that Gettysburg was a great movie, but I just couldn't get into it.
If you have the time to watch this movie, you have the time to watch Ken Burn's fantastic series The Civil War. Take my advice, skip Gods and Generals.
Saugus plays tonight for the US Little League Championship. If they win, they play tomorrow for the Little League World Series Championship.
I got my fingers crossed and will be watching the game...
Route 1, which makes up Saugus's floodlit spine, has drawn streams of residents from all over town on game nights, where they pile into the warehouse-sized restaurants and cheer on the boys. They come from the old east side, where the now-famous Little League team hails from, and the tonier developments of the west side. Five hundred people gathered around televisions at Prince Pizzeria & Bar, 400 mobbed the upstairs at the Frank Guiffrida's Hilltop Steak House, and 200 watched at Kowloon restaurant. By the improbable end of the game, when Saugus rallied with four runs to beat Richmond, Texas, by a single run in extra innings, old ladies were hoarse.
"I almost had a heart attack," said Chris Moore, who is 12. "I ran outside my house and started yelling, `Honk for Saugus.' It was crazy. I almost died."
After the game, 2,000 honking, waving fans poured into the town's central square, said Saugus Police Lieutenant Mike Annese. Yesterday, in the crowd's wake, a bronze Union soldier was decorated with a baseball glove, a Little League poster and a jersey in team colors. The crowd's energy "burst" almost as soon as it gathered, Annese said.
"They were happy to the point where they wanted to be with someone other than themselves," he said. [Boston Globe]
Heather [Dooce] is one of the best weblogs out there. She causes me fits of laughter every time she posts!
Since Heather's site doesn't ping weblogs.com or blo.gs, it doesn't pop up on my new fangled devices and I have to remember to go to the site by hand every so often. It's probably been at least a month since I remembered and it's been far too long so I'm posting this as a reminder to myself.
The Dooce is the best personal website, period, and my all-time favorite weblog. I can't get enough of it and I wish I could write one tenth as funny as she does every day.
[A Whole Lotta Nothing]here's another world inside of me that you may never see.
There's secrets in this life that I can't hide.
Somewhere in this darkness there's a life that I can't find.
Maybe it's too far away or maybe I'm just blind, maybe I'm just blind.
So hold me when I'm here right me when I'm wrong.
Hold me when I'm scared and love me when I'm gone.
Everything I am and everything in me
Wants to be the one you wanted me to be.
I'll never let you down even if I could.
I'd give up everything if only for your good.
So hold me when I'm here right me when I'm wrong.
You can hold me when I'm scared but you won't always be there,
So love me when I'm gone, love me when I'm gone
When your education x-ray cannot see under my skin.
I won't tell you a damn thing that I could not tell my friends.
Now roaming through this darkness I'm alive but I'm alone.
Part of me is fighting this but part of me is gone.
So hold me when I'm here right me when I'm wrong.
Hold me when I'm scared and love me when I'm gone.
Everything I am and everything in me.
Wants to be the one you wanted me to be,
Ill never let you down even if I could.
I'd give up everything if only for your good.
So hold me when I'm here right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared, you won't always be there,
So love me when I'm gone.
(Maybe I'm just blind)
So hold me when I'm here right me when I'm wrong.
Hold me when I'm scared and love me when I'm gone.
Everything I am and everything in me,
Wants to be the one you wanted me to be.
I'll never let you down even if I could.
I'd give up everything if only for your good.
So hold me when I'm here right me when I'm wrong.
You can hold me when I'm scared, you won't always be there.
So love me when I'm gone, love me when I'm gone.
This is damn impressive. I've always been happy with NYC cab drivers, but the Boston cab drives are clearly the worst that I've had the displeasure of riding with.
NYC did it right. Looks like we're finally taking a different approach. Thank god.
BOSTON, Aug. 22 %u2014 Say ìpleaseî and ìthank you.î Dress nice, and try not to run any stop lights or make offensive comments.Those are the lessons that the city of Boston and Democratic organizers are hoping the cityís 5,500 cabbies learn before next summerís presidential convention. []
Been pretty busy over here. Couple parties and gathering to goto, some major real job stuff going on, and some family funnies happening once again. Bloggin will be light through the weekend.
Off for some 6:30am golf tomorrow!
Picked up the iTrip device today at MicroCenter in Cambridge. I had been using a different radio transmitter for my iPod, but this one is so much sleeker and easier to use, I couldn't resist.
Now my iPod is in the process of syncing with my Mac Desktop G4 instead of my windows computer. Much faster and iTunes provides for better customization of music I think. Sides, I'm pretty much a Mac exclusive user at home now, so may as well do it with the iPod as well.
Drool. I'd love to have one. Then again, I've got two G4s... still would be nice ;)
jocknerd writes "Apple is now shipping its G5. The 1.6ghz and 1.8ghz are shipping while the dual processor 2.0ghz will ship at the end of the month." [Slashdot]
So.... around 4:20 yesterday, the lights around my cubicle got REALLY bright, then fizzled, then went out. Our building had "blinked" once or twice before, but when the lights didn't come back after a minute or two, people began to mill around. We realized that it wasn't just our floor, it was the building. A security announcement over the P.A. confirmed that. We went to the windows and realized that the lights in the intersection were out. then we saw the smoke from the buildings all over brooklyn as the diesel generators kicked in. Then we saw the same smoke in manhattan. Then the same smoke in Jersey. This was going to be an interesting day in New York City.
Some people panicked a bit. Our building has a 360 degree panaramic view; the walls were lined with people staring out the windows. I went to the north side of the building, which faces my neighborhood and the Con Edison plant behind it. I didn't see any plumes of smoke or emergency lights, which was a good thing. my nerves pretty much settled at that point. [Objective]
Aug. 15 - The official leading the investigation into the biggest power failure in history said Friday that a section of the U.S.-Canadian power grid in Ohio had emerged as the %u201Cprime suspect%u201D for triggering the cascading shutdowns that left as many as 50 million people without power a day earlier. [MSNBC]
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain will always remain as one of my favorite persons of the 19th Century. He was a common man, a professor at Bowdoin College in Maine, who volunteered for the Union Army.
At the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, he led the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment and held the end of the Union line. Having been ordered to hold the line at all costs, he eventually led a bayonet assault against the advancing Confederate Army. He held his ground.
For his actions that day Chamberlain would receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. At war's end, he would be a Major General. And it would be he, above all other officers, who General U.S. Grant chose to receive the surrender of the Confederate Army.
As the Confederates stacked their arms to return home, Chamberlain ordered his men to salute the departing Confederates.
One incredible man.
The Boston Globe has updated their online site boston.com with a new look, feel, and interface.
I'm sure that it's probably better overall, but damn if I don't already miss the old site. I knew where everything was ;)
Herb Brooks, who coached the U.S. hockey team to the "Miracle on Ice" victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, died Monday in a car wreck, a state official said. He was 66.
Brooks coached the 1980 Olympic team that won the gold medal in Lake Placid, N.Y. He returned to lead the 2002 U.S. Olympic hockey team to a silver medal.
Brooks was killed when his car rolled over at a highway intersection north of the Twin Cities, according to the state official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Weather didn't appear to be a factor. [Boston Globe]
When the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen, took the podium of the new Walt Disney Concert Hall one morning in late June, anticipation hung in the air. Fewer than a dozen people were scattered about the 2,265-seat auditorium, including the architect, Frank Gehry.
OUTSIDE, THE GORGEOUS billowing curves and swoops of the nearly finished stainless-steel exterior—already an L.A. landmark—shimmered. Yet this stunning building will truly succeed only if the quality of its sound matches its physical beauty. That June day marked the first time the full orchestra had played in the new hall. Salonen led the musicians into the opening bars of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, but he soon tapped his baton, stopped and scanned the hall for Gehry. “Frank,” he said, “we’ll keep it.” Gehry started crying. [MSNBC]
BOSTON (AP) The U.S. Secret Service is considering closing the busy North Station subway stops during next year's Democratic National Convention, a possibility that's raising concern among environmental and transportation advocates.
The plan would shut down the North Station's Green and Orange subway line stops between July 26 to July 29, when the convention is at the FleetCenter, located above North Station. [Boston Globe]
Aug. 10, 2003The top American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, was quoted on Sunday as saying that intelligence reports indicate that hundreds of Islamic militants who fled the country during the U.S.-led war had returned and were planning to conduct %u201Clarge-scale terrorist attacks.%u201D Bremer%u2019s comments follow another day of violence in Iraq, during which at least four U.S. soldiers were wounded in separate attacks. [MSNBC]
LOS ANGELES, CA Tony Award winner Gregory Hines, the tap-dancing actor who started on Broadway and in movies including "White Nights" and "Running Scared," has died, his publicist says. He was 57.
Hines died Saturday in Los Angeles of cancer, publicist Allen Eichorn said.
The dancer, among the best in his generation, won a 1993 Tony for the musical "Jelly's Last Jam." [Washington Post]
WHEN WILLIAM BULGER became president of the University of Massachusetts in 1995, I remarked that his Beacon Hill career had been one long gorging at the public trough. ''By now,'' I wrote in this space, ''the dollars he has extracted to enrich himself and his relatives must run well into seven figures.'' After last week's larceny, it may be time to update that estimate. Between the $960,000 severance deal and an annual pension of at least $240,000 (but ''there are a lot of complicating factors that could make it even higher,'' the state treasurer's office says), the total Bulger take must surely be nearing the eight-figure mark -- if it hasn't passed it already.
[...]
The right answer, then as now, was: A person of integrity, someone of incorruptible character whose appointment would reflect honor on the institution. No one should have confused Bulger with such a person -- least of all the man whose endorsement essentially handed him the job: Governor Weld. [Boston Globe]
This has to be the most disgusting stuff I have ever had to drink. Good God. How does this stuff sell so well?
There is just something sort of wrong when you hear Jimmy Buffett singing "Brown Eyed Girl".
I'm sorry, but this man needs to stay behind bars. Reading through the rest of the article outlines other examples of killers, including one of a county sheriff during an escape attempt, served 20 - 25 years and are now paroled.
This is wrong. Life should mean what it is.. Life.
Nearly 30 years ago, prosecutors assured Stephanie Manley that the day would never come when the man who pleaded guilty to the murder of her husband would leave prison.
But now that day is almost here. It's Tuesday.
At her request, a judge is considering an injunction. But if the past is any guide, such a move is unlikely.
Norman Woodford avoided the risk of execution by pleading guilty to murder in connection with the 1974 slaying of Indianapolis Police Officer Ronald Manley.
Back in 1976, when Woodford pleaded guilty in a Marion County court, murderers serving life were ineligible for parole, Indiana Parole Board attorney Earl Coleman said. Only the governor could grant them freedom.
In 1979, lawmakers changed the rules, Coleman said, and gave Woodford and many other convicted killers serving a single life sentence a chance at parole. [Indianapolis Star]
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 ó The United States military, the Central Intelligence Agency and Iraqi exiles began a broad covert effort inside Iraq at least three months before the war to forge alliances with Iraqi military leaders and persuade commanders not to fight, say people involved in the effort.
Even after the war began, the Bush administration received word that top officials of the Iraqi government, most prominently the defense minister, Gen. Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Tai, might be willing to cooperate to bring the war to a quick end and to ensure a postwar peace, current and former American officials say.
General Hashem's ministry was never bombed by the United States during the war, and the Pentagon's decision not to knock Iraqi broadcasting off the air permitted him to appear on television with what some Iraqi exiles have called a veiled signal to troops that they should not fight the invading allies. [NY Times]
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Monday plans to take command of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan's war-shattered capital, a move that reflects the 54-year-old alliance's shifting priorities in the global war on terror.
The deployment in Asia will be NATO's first outside Europe since the organization was formed during the Cold War to provide a bulwark against possible attacks by the former Soviet Union.
NATO will take over command of the 5,000-strong International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, from Germany and the Netherlands during a ceremony in Kabul. [Boston Globe]
Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, in a dramatic gesture illustrating his commitment to change, announced yesterday that he will move out of the Brighton manse occupied by his predecessors and into the brick rectory of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, next to a housing project in Boston's South End.
The cross-town move, which O'Malley said he expects to complete within the next couple of months, is the latest in a series of rapid-fire steps the new archbishop has taken in the nine days since he was installed as archbishop July 30. On his second day as archbishop, he replaced the church's oft-criticized lawyers, and yesterday he offered $55 million to settle 542 clergy sex abuse claims. [Boston Globe]
I got my invitation today to BloggerCon - am very excited about going!
October 4th, here I come!
Pretty fascinating story. I wish it was in HTML instead of PDF, but was still a good read.
Ryan Lackey: HavenCo: What really happened. [Hack the Planet]
I worked out for twenty minutes this morning for the first time in two or three years. At least since before we moved into the house, so probably more like three years.
Felt good.
Now I have to get up tomorrow morning and do the same thing. Do it three or four days in a row and I should have a new habit. Wish me luck.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6, 2003 Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger terminated the suspense Wednesday night by declaring that he would challenge Gov. Gray Davis in the Oct. 7 recall election, immediately becoming the most prominent opponent of the embattled Democrat. [MSNBC]
Installed today... Can't wait to use it!
New! Exchange Update for Entourage X
Its here- Microsoft® Exchange Update for Entourage%u2122 X - created for Mac users in organizations that use Microsoft Exchange Server for e-mail messaging and collaboration. The Exchange Update for Entourage X makes more things possible for Mac users. [Microsoft Mactopia]
I am glad to see that Bulger finally came to his senses over this. I'd love to have a strong university president in place - but I'd prefer one that wasn't tainted by this scandal with some real credibility.
A great move by Bulger - too bad it took so long for him to do.
William M. Bulger, the legendary strongman of state politics who has led the University of Massachusetts to new respectability during the last seven years, plans to announce today he will step down as UMass president following weeks of criticism over his role in the federal investigation of his fugitive mobster brother, James ''Whitey'' Bulger, according to a person close to discussions between Bulger and UMass trustees.
Bulger has reluctantly concluded that his continued stewardship would do more harm than good at the five-campus university and that the demands for his resignation by Governor Mitt Romney -- as well as Romney's promise to appoint trustees who oppose Bulger -- would only fracture the university leadership and demoralize students and alumni.
''The governor gets his three new [trustee] appointees in September, and Bulger and the board jointly recognize that it was in the university's best interest not to allow this whole drama to continue,'' the source said. [Boston Globe]
Happy Birthday to my little brother Steven who turns 25 today! Egads! 25!
It's going to be an interesting time watching General Schoomaker work through a plan to transform the Army. Here goes the first salvo in that "Pentagon War."
IN ADVANCE OF Schoomaker's swearing-in last Friday, the Army's acting chief, Gen. John Keane who is himself retiring spoke with a list of three- and four-star generals, thanked them for their services and told them it was time to go. Sources say Keane first contacted half a dozen names, but by the end of the week the list had reportedly grown to 11 with more to come within 30 days, according to one Army source. The Army has a total of 50 three- and four-star generals. A senior Pentagon civilian called the move "housecleaning."
Glad to see that this has come to a right and proper conclusion. Congratulations to Bishop Robinson and the Episcopal / Anglican Church.
MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 5 %u2014 The Rev. V. Gene Robinson was confirmed Tuesday night as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church after surviving a last-minute investigation of allegations of inappropriate conduct.
This is a major thing for me as I am near a Panera nearly all of the time and love to eat and hang out there. I am so looking forward to this.
Panera Bread Company is equipping their bakery-cafes nationwide with free WiFi hot spots. [The Connected PDA]
I think I'd like to own one of these, but like the other Apple hardware, they're quite expensive.
I still want one though.
Some companies are finding that OS X and Xserve are a viable, sometimes cheaper, alternative to Windows-based networks,” reports BusinessWeek online. [Aug 5] [Apple Hot News]
I love JAG. Most recent season now replaying on USA Networks. Great Show.
SEOUL, South Korea -- A top official with the Hyundai group has committed suicide by jumping off a building that is part of the company's headquarters, South Korean media reports.
Chung Mong-hun, chairman of Hyundai Asan Co. which focuses on tourism, killed himself at about 6 a.m. Monday (2010 GMT Sunday) by leaping from his 12th-floor office, the reports said.
Chung was being investigated in connection with an alleged payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to North Korea in exchange for its holding a summit between South and North Korean leaders. [MSNBC]
TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug. 3 %u2014 U.S. soldiers hunting for Saddam Hussein in the restive territory around his home town said on Sunday they hoped to capture him alive, as another guerrilla attack gravely wounded an Iraqi in Baghdad.
[...]
Soldiers of the 4th Infantry’s 1st Brigade, which has led several raids, said that if Saddam was found they would aim to capture him alive so that he could be questioned.
“Clearly we’ll be going in to take him alive to extract the maximum intelligence,” Lieutenant Jason Price of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, told Reuters in Tikrit. [MSNBC]
Even when he ruled Iraq, Saddam Hussein led a nomad's life. As President he was too paranoid to sleep in the massive, marble-lined palaces he erected all over Iraq as monuments to his power. According to close associates, he would stay instead in small houses on the edges of his various compounds, changing location every eight to 10 hours and keeping an assistant on duty around the clock to pack and unpack his suitcases. Saddam, his former secretary says, so admired the fortitude of the Bedouin tribes that wander the Iraqi wilderness that he often headed into the mountains%u2014accompanied, of course, by caravans of aides, cooks and bodyguards%u2014to bed down among them. "He lived very simply," says the secretary. "He didn't need much."
That can be a useful quality when you're running for your life. If Saddam's circumstances are anything like those of his sons Uday and Qusay, who died in a shoot-out with U.S. forces in Mosul two weeks ago, he is traveling with only the barest essentials: money and guns. [Time Magazine]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Aug. 3, 2003. An audiotape purportedly from top al-Qaida official Ayman al-Zawahri warned the United States on Sunday it would pay a high price if it harmed any of the detainees at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
THE VOICE on the tape, broadcast by the Dubai-based Arabic television Al Arabiya, also told the United States that the “real battle” against it has not started yet.
“America has announced it will start putting on trial in front of military tribunals the Muslim detainees at Guantanamo and might sentence them to death,” said the voice, which Al Arabiya television identified as that of Zawahri.
“I swear in the name of God that the crusader America will pay a dear price for any harm it inflicts on any of the Muslim detainees.” [MSNBC]
This is just one of the many results that we're seeing here in Taunton due to the fine budgeting and political process that we're seeing between the Mayor, the City Council, and others in City government.
Years of nice surpluses gave them extra money over the last decade. So what did they do? They spent it.
Now we don't have a rosy economy and they're unable to reducing spending to a reasonable level because they've acted like pigs at a trough.
I want my police and fire departments staffed at levels that make sense and provide a safe and crime-free environment here in Taunton - so do my neighbors.
Get it done...
TAUNTON -- Fire Chief Thomas Downey Jr. says his department will run out of money to pay for electricity and gas to operate the fire stations and gasoline to fuel the trucks by April under the current budget.
He added that taking fire equipment out of service is the only way to make his budget work even that well.
In an effort to save jobs during the city%u2019s extreme fiscal stress, Downey proposed allowing seven firefighter positions to go unfilled before firefighters are called in for overtime pay.
As a result, Downey has cut his overtime expenditures from last year sevenfold.
But there has been a cost, noticed by citizens who see signs stating that the Central Fire station is closed, as it is when seven firefighters miss work because of sickness or vacation. [Taunton Gazette]
No, I'm not going to be sorry. You'll write from your heart, validate it [sometimes] from your head, and what you post here will be interesting to us all.
If nothing else, it's a way to be less lonely. Welcome to the world of blogging....
Well, I am trying to do my best in a world I truly do not fathom...computers. Anyone I know who works in this field right now is chuckling because they know it can be a lesson in futility....
At least one person had faith in me and nerves of steel to listen to all of my inane questions now and in the future. Thanks Bryan. You are going to be sorry. [Alma Libra]
Erin has her own weblog now, entitled Alma Libra.
And I'm hosting it!
Testing Testing... [Alma Libra]
My tea's gone cold, I wondering why I got out of bed at all
The morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall
It reminds me that it's not so bad, it's not so bad
I drank too much last night, got bills to pay, my head just feels in pain
I missed the bus and there'll be hell today, I'm late for work again
And even if I'm there, they'll all imply that I might not last the day
And then you call me and it's not so bad, it's not so bad and
I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life
Push the door, I'm home at last and I'm soaking through and through
Then you handed me a towel and all I see is you
And even if my house falls down now, I wouldn't have a clue
Because you're near me and
I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life. [Dido Lyrics]
Developing a balanced business ethic which embraces fairness and honesty as well as profit tops my list of issues urgently deserving attention. In the post-Communist era, the capitalist system has triumphed globally. Now the system has to be saved from its own excesses.
When the mission in practice of business is to maximize the wealth of management and sophisticated investors, it creates a climate which rewards greed and deception and makes the egregious behavior of an Enron or Worldcom inevitable, It also undermines the overall legitimacy of private enterprise as a system. We cannot afford this. [Mitch Kapor]
I've been reading alot about remote controlled helicopters over the past few days. I have come to the conclusion that I'd really like to have one.. but damn these things are expensive.
I did find a local man in New Hampshire who has a very nice one for sale at a reasonable cost - but still needs a radio and receiver, which is another few hundred dollars. Hmmm...
Subscribed. I wanna go!
The first BloggerCon invites go out next week. Be sure you get one by signing up here. [Scripting News]