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Market Square
I watched the debates on CSPAN
I intended to just pick up the highlights of the debates today but I got dragged in. I want to understand the McCain/Palin love. I feel like I’m missing something. One of my neighbors has a McCain/Palin yard sign and I simply do not understand what they see in these two.
I watched the debates on CSPAN with their wonderful split screen and no over talking the candidates with commentators! Did anyone else notice that CSPAN gave Palin 53% of the screen while Biden was squeezed, with his head often bobbing offscreen, in 47%. On my 20 inch tv (that’s the diagonal measurement), Biden had 7.5 inches and Palin had 8.5 inches. Perhaps that was intended to be a metaphor for Biden being more in touch with the average American while Palin supposedly swings a big stick.
Don’t Vote! (registration ends Monday)
(mature language warning)
Leonardo DiCaprio, will i. am, Tobey Maguire, and Forest Whitaker have created public service announcements to encourage American youth to register to vote. The non-partisan PSAs, produced by DiCaprios Appian Way, were created to engage and inspire young people to register and vote and participate in the upcoming election. Celebrities appearing in the PSAs include: Amy Adams, will.i.am, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Bacon, Halle Berry, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Connolly, Courteney Cox, Ellen DeGeneres, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Jonah Hill, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Kiedis, Ashton Kutcher, Adam Levine, Laura Linney, Eva Longoria, Tobey Maguire, Demi Moore, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Ethan Suplee, Kyra Sedgwick, Michelle Trachtenberg, Usher, and Forest Whitaker.
Have you reached out to an unregistered voter and encouraged them to participate in the election? Time is running out. Find voter registration information at http://maps.google.com/vote
Train Operator was Avid Texter
ABC News reports that Metrolink train engineer Robert Sanchez of the deadly crash in California sent 29 text messages that day. The last message was sent 22 seconds before the crash. Apparently it read: "OMG! Freight train!" NTSB has not released the other 28 messages.
Update: The crux of the problem is that the engineer missed a light warneing of the collision (or that’s the assumption). Our reaction will be to treat the symptom and ban cell phones which in itself may not be bad but the problem is the engineer did not stop the train presumably because he did not see the signal for whatever reason. We should be treating the problem by installing better warning systems and automated controls that could stop the train without human interaction, after all, the engineer could have been reading a book, daydreaming, sleeping, or slumped over the controls in a heart attack. I sure would like to see us become a society that responds to problems rather than reacts to symptoms.
Copying files should not take forever!
I am laying in some significant code changes so I am making a backup of my development environment. No, I’m not using SVN or other revision control as I should be. Windows takes forever to make a copy! In Linux this could have been done almost before I finished typing the command. File copies should not be measured in, "sure, go to the store, buy dinner supplies, come home and cook then I’ll be done copying" time!
Just one more minute
"Just one more minute" Those words are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Oh. I suppose that expression is going to have to go the way of the slide projector. Do they even have chalk boards in the schools anymore? I utter those words almost everyday. Today I did it at 1:54am. I was awake enough to get up and work. But noooo. I was compelled to take just one more minute From 2am-6am I could have made huge coding progress! Of course, the New York Times reported people are 33% more creative after sleep. To prove the point, that problem which had me stumped at midnight has already been solved.
Random searches of students passes unanimously
The Knox County School Board voted unanimously to approve random searching of students. The next steps are to have the Law Department issue a legal memorandum then to have a final reading of the policy on November 2nd.
A commenter with good common sense from Volunteer TV’s comments regarding the Knox County School Board wanting to implement random searches in the school (emphasis added):
Posted by: Keri Location: Knoxville on Oct 1, 2008 at 09:46 AM
Are we, as members of a free democracy-protected by a Constitution, going to allow the constitutional rights of our children to be trampled upon? I am as concerned as most citizens about the safety of our children at school, but I am more concerned about the intimidation and conditioning of our children to accept infringements on their rights as American citizens. If we accept policies that not only allow, but encourage the powers that be to randomly search our children, without cause or evidence of wrong doing, how much longer before these policies obscure the rights of every citizen? These children are the future policy makers and leaders of our country and they will lead us based on the manner in which they have been lead. It is time to send a message to our children and the policy makers of our community that we value our Constitutional rights and those who fought and died to secure those rights, far too much to allow anyone, for any reason to strip our children of their liberty. [Source, VolunteerTV.com, Knox Co. School Board considering random search proposal, Keri]
Quit looking for quick fixes and think about the future. Please.
See also: teenagers are not criminals
Google from 2001
In 2001, a search for "Doug McCaughan" brings back 8 results. Today the same search returns 11,000!
In honor of their 10th birthday, Google has made its oldest index available. Search 2001!
In PA the vote is split between Obama and McCain
This is why you should never get your news from FOX! I really like the lady in the back right smacking her husband’s arm as he tries to raise it for McCain.
Note for when Youtube takes the video down. A reporter asks for a show of hands for McCain voters vs Obama voters. Almost every hand is down for McCain and up for Obama but the reporter declares the vote "split."
Little boys attract dirt
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Please vote NO to random searches in our schools
I felt compelled to email each of our school board members (and the ACLU) since tonight they will vote to approve random searching of students in our schools. This is the email I sent. Will you send one?
Dear School Board,
Please vote NO to random searches in our schools. Our money and time will be better spent developing a rapport with the students.
These websites informed me that Knox County School plans to pass a measure to allow random searching of students in the schools:
http://schoolmatters.knoxnews.com/forum/topic/show?id=879777%3ATopic%3A28290
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/sep/30/random-searches-at-schools-studied/
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/oct/01/Knox-school-superintendent-proposes-random-search/After the Central High School shooting, didn’t security experts advise you that the security cameras were a waste of money and that we’d be better served by having personnel interact more frequently with the students? See this quote from Knox School Matters:
I do not agree, I have a teenage daughter and do not want anyone “doing a pat down” search on her. They had a random metal detector search at Powell the other day and they only ran every 7th kid through it and yelled at the kids to shut up and just go through and dont ask questions. The kids were terrfied not knowing what was going on and being yelled at like criminals. Source, Knoxschoolmatters.com, Cindi
Our students deserve to be treated better than that. The students will not talk to the staff and warn them of impending doom when the student body fears the staff. We gain nothing through fear. In the penitentiary system random searches are to “breakdown” the inmates. Is that our goal? To brainwash and breakdown the children and parents? What legacy will we leave with these children when they graduate and start passing laws for us? For our own safety, will they legalize random searches in our retirement homes? The malls? Our houses?
Random searching is nothing more than theater. It is a waste of staff time, humiliating to the students, and ineffective. Ineffective? The student that wants to bring a gun to school isn’t going to be deterred by the possibility of a random search but I bet that student will be talking and exhibiting behaviors that give warning signs long before the gun comes in. You will pick up on the warning signs by interacting positively with the students. Negativity begets negativity and random searches are very negative.
Random searches at a school are different than random searches at an airport (although equally ineffective and very much theater). At the airport, we have the option to decline being searched and leave. Will our students have the right to decline a search and leave school?
You cannot build trust and safety on a foundation of fear and false suspicion. Please vote no.
Thank you!
Doug McCaughan
phone number
Update: A commenter at Knoxnews has this:
The Supreme Court Case that most directly deals with student searches is New Jersey v. T.L.O (469 U.S. 325). The written opinion states that althought students have not “necessarily waived all rights to privacy in such items by bringing them (legitimate, non-contraband items) onto school grounds,” a search can still be conducted if determined to be “reasonable.” The following describes the factors used to determine reasonableness:
“Determining the reasonableness of any search involves a determination of whether the search was justified at its inception and whether, as conducted, it was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances that justified the interference in the first place. Under ordinary circumstances, the search of a student by a school official will be justified at its inception where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school.”
In other words, officials must have a reason to search (less cause than suspision) a student. Random selection, by definition, is not a specific reason.
No matter how the school board votes, allowing random searches would be in direct violation of a Supreme Court ruling, and state and county law can not supercede federal law.
Update: No response from any board member. The ACLU called almost immediately!
Auto maintenance advice
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How weak are my glasses?
My glasses are so weak that I just wore them for 5 minutes before remembering that one of the lenses popped out earlier.
From the mouths of babes
Evan poking me in my side hard enough to bruise: "Daddy, I want you come upschairs."
Dad: "No I have to work."
Evan: "I have to work too."
Dad: "Oh you do? What are you working on?"
Evan: "I work on compshure."
I wish I could live long enough to see a society where our "work" was solely the development and growth of our children and that our skills were simply contributed as needed to the community. Ray, where’s that Singularity?
The Cupboards Were Bare
When the bedtime stories talk about bare cupboards, they mean ours. For the past 2 weeks, I have been saying, "We need to go to Sam’s. We need to go to the grocery." Time has not permitted. Somehow we have managed. Through creative cooking, every last crumb has turned into a child’s lunch for school, an afternoon snack, or a meal. When the stocks are running to nothing, resourcefulness and creativity kick in. This morning I looked in one cabinet and it was literally devoid of all but a single item! I could feel its vacuum trying to suck me in as if the Haldron Large Collider actually made its black hole in my kitchen cabinetry. The food shelves and fridge had barely enough to make Amy’s school lunch. I could have made pancakes or eggs and toast and avoided a trip to the store but this was looking bad. So for the sake of a happy family, I quested for food at Kroger before anyone woke.
I dodge boxes and employees while walking down the isles of Kroger for it was restocking time. The store is a bustle of activity and I feel like I’ve accidentally become privy to Disney’s afterhours magic. As I pull boxes of junk into my cart, knowing fruit rollups would please the children, I lament feeding them processed junk and ponder what I could do to send them to school with healthy snacks that they would still enjoy. Feeding a family is tough. Feeding a large family is more difficult. Feeding a large family healthy food on a tight budget and frantic schedule is nearly impossible! None the less, I make strides to improve. For instance, we have instant mashed potatoes in a fix but I prefer to make mashed potatoes from scratch.
The kitchen is a little less barren now. The children are happier. I still look forward to getting to Sam’s for we survive on bulk!
