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As a parent who recently bought a home deliberately OUTSIDE the Charlotte-Mecklenburg system, let me assure you, these people don't have any idea what they're doing. This school district has been in the crapper for years and years. No small part of my wife's and my decision to move OUT of Charlotte was the schools. You can check CMS's test results or you can find lots of interesting facts, not to mention things like this or this. The list goes on and on.

Oh really? Better have them yank this then...

You employ boy scouts?

I'm sure this is your employee, only a nerd would have a search dog named "Gandalf". And your employee looks very nerdly, as well!

Keep up the good, geeky work!

-mcgrew

Considering the fact that Google invaded North Carolina for a data center employing ~200 folks and gets to escape property taxes and other state taxes for up to thirty years...they seem to be on a pretty sound business model. I can't imagine their radio business will fail considering the effectiveness of their other efforts. All it takes is money and they have plenty of that.

"In January, Google announced it would build the computer center and bring up to 210 jobs in four years to Lenoir, a community 70 miles northwest of Charlotte hurting from the collapse of its furniture industry. In exchange, Caldwell and state officials approved incentives that could be worth more than $260 million over 30 years."

This from the Charlotte Observer...don't know if you may need to register... http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/16 711064.htm .

Incredible, 200 jobs gets them incentives worth $260 million over 30 years? Hell, they even got the elected county officials out there to help buy up the properties for their data center. The whole thing stinks on way too many levels. I guess I can rule out getting a job with them. :)

As a smart person working for a newpaper, I'd like to say, kiss my ass. You'd be hard pressed to find another industry that has more interesting data handling issues than a newspaper. We've got financial data, image data, text data (which is stored in a version tracking system similar to, but more extensive than, CVS), and massive archiving which is seperate from and connected to all of the above.

And all of this data has to be able to transition from pure digital to paper through a conversion and optimization process that requires raster processing and laser lithography like a goddamn microchip fabrication plant. You've got disaster recovery and stress like you wouldn't believe.

That being said, I have to agree with Rob. Interesting that he picked a KR paper. Knight Ridder has a terrible online presence...It's not done by individual papers either, it's all done on the corporate level. Check the websites: Charlotte, Philaphelphia, Biloxi, Macon...Notice anything? One size fits all.

The reason Knight Ridder is a bad example is because they don't take the web seriously in the least. They don't spend any money on it, and they don't let their individual papers do it themselves. Until they make more of an effort, they're not going to grow their web readership or their web presence. That's just common sense.

on gonzales, see here and elsewhere. on rice, see here and elsewhere. rtfn. stfu.

The 2004 election revealed many problems with electronic voting: lost votes, undervotes, overvotes, and votes rolling over into negative numbers. These links are taken from the group blog E-voting experts:

• Broward Co., FL - ESS software on their machines only reads 32,000 votes at a precinct then it starts counting backwards: http://www.news4jax.com/politics/3890292/detail.ht ml
• Wichita Co., TX - Nearly 6,900 of 26,000 total early votes had 'undervote' for President. Human error to blame. County has software problems that need ESS to fix before they can run ballots: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/trn/local_news/arti cle/0,1891,TRN_5784_3303816,00.html
• Lancaster Co., SC - Unilect Patriot voting machines were used and failed. Printouts of votes had to be taken from the machines memories and hand-counted: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/1 0094349.htm
• Mecklenburg Co., NC - More votes registered than voters: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/politi cs/10094165.htm
• Volusia Co., FL - Diebold optical-scan machines had another failure with 6 machines having memory card failures. "Ion Sancho, the elections supervisor in Leon County, said officials with Diebold told him that the new, higher-capacity memory cards tend to have more glitches than older cards.": http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/elections/orl- asecvolusiaglitches04110404nov04,1,3289659.story?c oll=orl-news-headlines
• Craven Co., NC - Software glitch forces a recount which changes the outcome in one race.: http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Templat e=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfmStoryID=18297Section =Local
• San Francisco, CA - A glitch in the new tabulation software made by ESS to handle IRV/RCV voting (more here) stoped the counting and forced a recount of 81,000 ballots.: http://www.internetweek.com/allStories/showArticle .jhtml?articleID=52200321
• Sarpy County, NE - 3000 phantom votes show up after an audit reveals that some tabulation equipment counted votes twice. (Im not sure if this is optical scan or some other system they used optical scan in 2002): http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/1161971.html
• Willacy County, TX - Human error in reading results reports causes presidential votes for John Kerry to be counted twice and subsequently misreported to the Texas Secretary of State.: http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/101 23432.htm?1c
• Columbus, OH - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,25

The 2004 election revealed many problems with electronic voting: lost votes, undervotes, overvotes, and votes rolling over into negative numbers. These links are taken from the group blog E-voting experts:

• Broward Co., FL - ESS software on their machines only reads 32,000 votes at a precinct then it starts counting backwards: http://www.news4jax.com/politics/3890292/detail.ht ml
• Wichita Co., TX - Nearly 6,900 of 26,000 total early votes had 'undervote' for President. Human error to blame. County has software problems that need ESS to fix before they can run ballots: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/trn/local_news/arti cle/0,1891,TRN_5784_3303816,00.html
• Lancaster Co., SC - Unilect Patriot voting machines were used and failed. Printouts of votes had to be taken from the machines memories and hand-counted: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/1 0094349.htm
• Mecklenburg Co., NC - More votes registered than voters: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/politi cs/10094165.htm
• Volusia Co., FL - Diebold optical-scan machines had another failure with 6 machines having memory card failures. "Ion Sancho, the elections supervisor in Leon County, said officials with Diebold told him that the new, higher-capacity memory cards tend to have more glitches than older cards.": http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/elections/orl- asecvolusiaglitches04110404nov04,1,3289659.story?c oll=orl-news-headlines
• Craven Co., NC - Software glitch forces a recount which changes the outcome in one race.: http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Templat e=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfmStoryID=18297Section =Local
• San Francisco, CA - A glitch in the new tabulation software made by ESS to handle IRV/RCV voting (more here) stoped the counting and forced a recount of 81,000 ballots.: http://www.internetweek.com/allStories/showArticle .jhtml?articleID=52200321
• Sarpy County, NE - 3000 phantom votes show up after an audit reveals that some tabulation equipment counted votes twice. (Im not sure if this is optical scan or some other system they used optical scan in 2002): http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/1161971.html
• Willacy County, TX - Human error in reading results reports causes presidential votes for John Kerry to be counted twice and subsequently misreported to the Texas Secretary of State.: http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/101 23432.htm?1c
• Columbus, OH - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,25

All statements made on the record by members of the International Answer steering committee.

A link would be nice.

Saying things like, "Saddam provides free education and health care. What has Bush done?" makes someone pro-Saddam.

A link would be nice.

The biggest pro-Saddam marches of 2003 had, by reliable estimates, a few tens of thousands of participants. These are very small numbers considering that more people than that turn out to watch your average Orioles game.

That's a lie.

200,000+ protested in Manhattan.

"In Rome, between 1 million and 3 million people turned out, according to police officials and protest organizers; in London, between half-million and 1 million; in Berlin, a half-million."

They were right? Iraq never did anything wrong? They were right? Iraq was a sovereign state with a legitimate government? They were right? The Iraqi regime should have been allowed to continue committing mass murder on a global scale?

I'll take your questions in order: Yes. I disagree with that statement. Who is "they"? Yes on sovereign, but not legitimate. Who is "they"? Your last question is a straw man. Iraq didn't commit mass murder on a global scale, unless you're including the Iran-Iraq war, which was a long time ago, when Saddam was our ally.

Now that I've caught you in a lie, what do you have to say for yourself? Are you embarrassed?

At long last, have you no shame?

"The investigative powers of van Hulst's agency were expanded earlier this year to permit the opening of mail and hacking into suspects' computer systems." - yeah, nice and free...

Reference: Here

Q.

However, some conservatives seem to be coming around; see here and here.

I don't know about selling Marijuana but members of the Hezbollah have been known to smuggle cigarettes from low tax states to high tax states. Cells like these pretty much deal in whatever trade they can (illegal or not) to earn money for their cause. I wouldn't doubt that they grow and sell marijuana, too.

>Do you really think that the media wouldn't be ALL OVER an instance where the government has taken a legitimate citizen?

Have you heard this one?

"Five months later, the alleged proprietor of a small-time document mill is at the center of what appears to be the only criminal case of its kind in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks -- one in which secret evidence has been presented against the defendant. Atriss remains in jail, now on $500,000 bond -- an amount consistent with a murder charge -- but prosecutors will not say why he poses such a serious risk or give him a chance to respond."

This is going too far. Our government is pissing all over the constitution. We are *not* at war until congress makes a declaration of war, and even then, US citizens have the right to see the evidence that is being used against them. I hope every one of you dumbasses who voted for the dumbass currently in charge is happy with the dictatorship that's forming right before your eyes.

...that you never hear of any accounting 'errors' that make the company look less wealthy than it is?

Maybe your point is that we don't hear about it, not that it doesn't happen. Disney's latest accounting error underestimated its earnings by $300 million. As others here have observed, that's less a big deal to the public (thus it's not a "news story"). However, I'm sure the Feds are quite interested in such earnings restatements.

I assume you are refering to Western Europe or the United States in you weapons argument. There are several international bans on biological weapons...

I was referring to the United States military, primarily. I was raised in a military family, and played soldier for a while. If something is weaponable it will be used. In the early 80's I was into RC planes in a big way. We had a squadron of planes - mostly junior NCO GIs and brats - and discussed military applications of the technology. I should have wrapped the whole post in <rant></rant> tags. :)

(the United States has not engaged in offensive microbiological weapons since the Nixon administration)

Uh, right.

Also I must ask what you mean by "targeted" bioweapons. We do not posess the technology to "target" a weapon beyond the scope of what species it effects (which is usually a trait inherited from the natural stock microbe). It is (and will remain) impossible to target a virus or bacterium to kill one man or nationality.

Thanks, I didn't now that. I'm not a microbiologist so I will defer to your expertise. I had assumed that it would eventually be possible to target specific individuals via a DNA fingerprint of some sort.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for stem cell research. I'm happy and amazed that Rhys Evans aka "Bubble Boy"was cured. I hope it advances medical science by an order of magnitude on the technology scale.

However, I do believe that if it's practical to weaponize something, it will be done. Technology in and of itself is neither good, nor bad. Ethics can only be applied to how it is used.

No doubt, we will do great good with biotech. Hopefully we will avoid any potential catasrophes along the way.

I do believe that the reason Sadam Hussein is the enemy of the year is HIS desire to develop bioweapons.

Yes, that and other things. Saddam Hussein is not a warm and fuzzy teddy bear. He's an asshole, but an effective and powerful dictator. He stood up against the United States and a "coalition army" and remains in power. He's well-respected for that - even if he's not loved.

There were political reasons why we didn't knock him out the last time. We would have pissed off his neighbors who are already massively supsicious and resentful of our military presence where they live.

Of course we do! It's so good to see that these treaties are still valued and not simply dismissed as relics of the past or some other equally hypocritical notion.

Ok, maybe I'm picking nits here, but this isn't an editorial. Dave Barry, for those who aren't familiar with him, is a humor writer who pens his weekly column for the Miami Herald. This was just his latest. The Miami Herald has an archive of his past columns (click on the 'Living' section and then on Dave Barry's picture). If you liked this Playstation one, you ought to check out his earlier work. His greatest piece, IMO, (not on the MH site as far as I know, but available here), titled "Days of Swine and Bozos," which is a very funny sendup of political corruption and incompetence in Miami government.

Just be careful not to give it to this parrot.

The NYT link doesn't appear to be working now. I found another link to the story, however.

• 4-25
• 4-27
• 4-28

• 4-27

I found these going thru the political cartoons at Cagle. Of course the vast majority of them blame the parents, the movies, the music, etc.

I've e-mailed them BOTH to express my appreciation.

• 4-25
• 4-27
• 4-28

• 4-27

I found these going thru the political cartoons at Cagle. Of course the vast majority of them blame the parents, the movies, the music, etc.

I've e-mailed them BOTH to express my appreciation.