October 2001

• Some people believe Leonard Nimoy Should Eat More Salsa. I think they're confusing Leonard Nimoy with Spock.
• Roger's Profanisaurus is a handy little (if perhaps not in the best taste) lexicon. Mostly British English.
• 'Gaydar' device clears up mixed signals. Well, there it is.
• Chrissie Hynde's Advice to Chick Rockers
• U cracking the whip on straggling students. The problem is that the University of Minnesota is a huge, impersonal beast that makes no allowances for someone who comes to school unsure what they want to be when they grow up.

Weather in Minneapolis for October 29, 2001     October 29 in History

• Bush signs sweeping anti-terrorism bill into law. It's a law now. How the new antiterrorism bill could affect you. Senator Russ Feingold on the Anti-Terrorism Law. War on Terror vs. Bill of Rights? Will the War Kill the Bill of Rights?. I don't really have a comment. It's just too damned depressing.
• A dose of anthrax reality: ... assume you receive a letter in the mail with powder. It's almost certainly a very unfunny hoax. All of the anthrax-laden letters so far have been mailed to those in high-profile positions. No offense, but you probably don't qualify.
• If you're really concerned about biowarfare, read USAMRIID's medical management of biological casualties handbook. Heck, it was paid for by your tax dollars.
• U.S. Citizen Swaps E-mail With Saddam Hussein.

• The last shoe has dropped: the end times are here. Spooky.
• The USA Act -- A Done Deal. Maybe the end times are here. I think the folks looking for more ''anti-terrorist measures'' need to remember the following quote:

  They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. - Benjamin Franklin

• What is the Constitution's role during wartime? doesn't offer much hope, either.
• House's shutdown hurts public trust. When the congress-critters appear cowardly, they invite ridicule. Leno on the subject: "Usually those guys only leave town when their interns test positive." Wasn't this the same Congress that criticized Bush for not getting right back to the White House on 9/11? At least they weren't making any more bad laws while they fled town.
• Mail Delivery Shows Limitations of Anthrax Attack. By mailing anthrax to news agencies and legislators, the folks behind it got maximum bang for their minimal buck. Remember that the whole point of terrorism is to create terror and the sort of panic the House and Press seem to be showing.
• Nuge 'em! - some fine quotes from Ted Nugent.

  Only a coward would want fewer good guys with guns on the streets. The militia and the honorable hunting families of this great land have always been best prepared for life's danger, now more than ever. Self-sufficiency is not supposed to be a recreational consideration, and woe to those who have embraced dependency because of its convenience.

• Finally, check InstaPundit.Com for lots about current events.

Weather in Minneapolis for October 22, 2001     October 22 in History

• Cleaner clears up Hirst's ashtray art. I think I agree that the proper title for Mr. Asare is not janitor, but art critic.
• Heard about the Novel Security Measures some airports are taking? (The book that got the kid in trouble was Hayduke Lives -- ISBN 0-31600-413-8, a sequel to The Monkey Wrench Gang ISBN 0-06095-644-5, and the story helps publicize those, which is a good thing.) Can government balance civil liberties, security? Not bloody likely. Heck, you can't even read and fly, apparently. Next thing you know, they'll ban thinking.
• ID card idea attracts high-level support among bigger-government types. Perhaps they haven't seen the Sample of Larry Ellison's new National ID Card (or a personalized version for themselves). Schwartzkopf, Dershowitz, McNealy, Feinstein
• How Safe Are Your Illegal Drugs? Terrorists could poison them and the government would be helpless to do anything about it. Or the government could poison them and ... oh wait. I already said that.
• Once the shooting's done, it'll take a decade to rebuild Afghanistan. Or maybe it'll go more like the tale described in Ayn Rand Comes to Somalia. I'm not sure that our helping really helps all that much. Then again, I'm not so sure I even know What Really Happened (some of their facts check out, but you'll probably want to fact check this more closely than usual).
• Officer injured by Clinton motorcade - D'you ever get the feeling that some people just don't get it? And that far too many of them are our elected representatives?
• St. Paul's Ford plant's future in doubt. And they're just coming up to renew their license for hydropower at the Ford Lock and Dam (aka Lock & Dam #1) with FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission).
• Sperm tail protein points to male pill. Stop the boys from swimming, and they don't do their job very well.
• Don't read The Science Behind the Song Stuck in Your Head unless you're prepared to try and shake out the song that pops into your brain and gets stuck. It'll happen.
• HowGoodInBed.com purports to predict how good someone will be in bed without you actually having to exchange precious bodily fluids.
• Click and Clack present The Ultimate Guy Cars of All Time. The Camaro, (RIP) made the list.

Weather in Minneapolis for October 19, 2001     October 19 in History

• Safe and Free in Times of Crisis is the ACLU's summary of the horrible bills that have passed Congress. Ugh. Hopefully, phones will be lighting up with calls from pissed-off constituents this morning, but I don't really expect people will make a stink until it's too late.
• Unleash the Gurkhas or maybe just ignore the war: a personal declaration of deep neutrality.
• The Truth Behind PPPoE is that it's pretty much evil, bad and wrong. But if you cared, you knew that, I bet.
• Gartner says get a more secure web server than IIS. Good advice.
• Phrases guaranteed to make web developers want to kill you.
• css/edge has some cool stuff done entirely with CSS.
• The Daypop Top 40 Links show the 40 most popular stories with bloggers. Interesting. It's sort of a meta-weblog. Now if there were just a way to filter it a little better....

Weather in Minneapolis for October 15, 2001     October 15 in History

• A few links talking about 9/11. Comments from passengers stranded in Gander has a bunch of touching stories. WOMANROCK.com - stories from NYC, too. The Effects of September 11 on Google describes changes in both how the folks at Google see their services, as well as how the outside world views them. Crossing America - Dispatches from a new nation is a series of articles by a reporter who drove from Seattle to New York, talking to folks along the way.
• Telling the terrorists We're more nuts than you. Can't argue with that reasoning.
• David Grenier: Domestic Terrorist - this happened way back in August. Hopefully the current mayor in Seattle will go down in flames for it, but probably not. The Niemöller redux page has an update, as well as a fine re-interpretation of that writing that ends and then they came for me.
• Now I understand why we needed a standing army: to create the need for a Department of Homeland Security. And deal with those pesky folks like David Grenier. It's all part of Osama-gate. And if we're going to vigorously attack those who support terrorism, when do the bombs start to fall on Langley? Oh wait, they only support the good terrorists.
• Feingold blocks Senate attempt to trample civil rights. You might want to Contact Senator Feingold and thank him for at least slowing down the process of creating The Surveillance Society. Secretive U.S. court may add to power - Been around since 1978, but the Bush administration is looking to expand this court's powers. Then again, the Onion makes a compelling case: Freedoms Curtailed In Defense Of Liberty.
• Have you noticed that the masked figure in the CIA's Terrorist Busters Logo looks a lot like the police in "dynamic entry" situations? Hmm!

Weather in Minneapolis for October 12, 2001     October 12 in History

• One of the notable things about Bourbon is that it's got quite a lot of maize in it (by definition, at least 51%) and is only single-distilled (again, by definition). There are some brands that use Rye as well (rather than wheat or barley), and there's the subgroup of rye-whiskey, hard to come by outside the borders of the US of A. Rye has a very distinctive taste. That aside, there's a pretty good bourbon primer at http://www.smallbatch.com/SBBC/BourbonPrimer.asp.
• Basil Hayden's : This was my first introduction to small-batch bourbons. It's darned tasty, and as smooth as some Irish whiskeys, in spite of Irish being triple-distilled, and Basil's only having gone through the pipes a single time. This is prety heavy in rye (which I didn't know until reading the web-page just now), which may explain why it's my favorite bourbon.
• Baker's An admirable second choice. It's got more bite than Basil's, but the character is all bourbon. 107 proof. Wee-haw! It's actually pretty smooth, considering how strong it is. One might be tempted to feed it to a young lady who has little experience in bourbons. Well, if one were a complete cad. Oh wait. I am. And I have. Oops.
• Booker's The third of the three-B's. Another fine choice, and again, a distinctly American flavor to it. Also not as smooth as Basil's, but the bite isn't a bad thing. The bite is because it's 121 to 127 proof. It's hand-selected, and pretty darned tasty. Booker's is surprisingly smooth for as strong as it is, though, which leads one back to the cad comment....
• Maker's Mark is a newcomer, having only been distilled since 1953, it's Andy Rooney's favorite bourbon -- I can't bring myself to argue with the old curmudgeon. It's my "on the cheap" bourbon, even though it ends up being priced very similarly to Power's Irish (sigh). From their marketing: The Maker's Mark mash substitutes wheat for rye, which gives the spirit a smoother, cleaner finish. The bourbon is lush, rich and complex with the finish of good cognac. There's actually not much there that I can argue with in that. It's darned good, and I always have a tough time deciding between buying a bottle of Maker's Mark and a bottle of Basil's.
• Wild Turkey Hunter S. Thompson's old favorite. It's relatively clean-tasting, if a bit strong. A good fallback in bars that don't have a real selection of bourbon.
• Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey It's not that smooth. It's not that tasty. It's got much of what some don't like in bourbon. But it is damned popular. And it is the Reverend Jack. The Jack Rye is notable as one of the first ryes I've tried, and still fairly good.
• Finally, after all of that, you may want to look at some Alcohol Warnings. They're helpful to remember.

Weather in Minneapolis for October 8, 2001     October 8 in History

• Eavesdrop Now, Reassess Later? talks about the Patriot Act, the replacement for the hideous Anti-Terrorism Act. Doesn't sound very patriotic to me.
• El Al shows pilots art of the fightback tells the pilot's side of the story I linked to last month titled Transcripts: The guerrilla's story.
• New CDs designed to end 'ripping'. But they contain two broken versions of the music, so it'll probably keep Windows users from complaining. And it was a smart move by Microsoft to spend the past few years convincing record execs that WindowsMedia is copy-proof.
• You may want to check out the Response to Public Comments on the W3C Patent Policy before October 11. That's the deadline for comments on the new policy. More information in Patents on Web Standards, Who Owns the Patent to Style Sheets? and Fighting Back for Web Standards. Check Zeldman frequently if you want to keep up.
• Fans cling to Midway's charms at savemidway.org. Hey, that's us!
• Dinkytown: The new cool by the school. Huh. That's my neighborhood.
• I've added some more pictures: Walk along the river 2 Oct 2001 is all new, and there's a new picture of Downtown Minneapolis.
• Finally, I've dropped some of the prices at Crazy Dave's Computer Crap Emporium and updated it to reflect things that have been sold.

Weather in Minneapolis for October 5, 2001     October 5 in History

• Bruce Scheier's Crypto-Gram: September 30, 2001 has a big section on the snake-oil that are the new airline security regulations.
• Taliban Surrenders bin Laden After Web Site Defaced.
• Contrary to previous reports, Phil Zimmerman has No Regrets About Developing PGP.
• The Interface Mafia are volunteers who review user interface. Cool.
• OpenCola.com - Soft Drink Formula. Open source drink. Huh!
• Minnesota State employees set to strike today. Expect long lines at the DMV, the Dept. of Health, and the Minnesota Zoo is closed for the duration.
• Border Pilot is a collection of stories of a pilot flying crop-dusters in Texas near the Mexican border in the 70s. I spent a few hours yesterday reading through it all, and consider it time well spent.

Weather in Minneapolis for October 1, 2001     October 1 in History