As I mentioned earlier, I was trying to get my five-year old into a closer school via a district transfer. Finally, one week before school starts and after several phone calls and meetings, it’s official: The transfer is going to happen. I’ve gotten confirmation from both schools, and my daughter is, needless to say, excited and can’t wait to go to school (and they even had an opening in our preferred morning time slot).
Month: August 2005
Now That They’ve Declared Martial Law, Can They Shoot the Looters?
Obviously, I can look it up and figure out what the declaration of Martial Law entails, but I just hope it means that somebody in Army camo with a big M16 machine gun can round up all those bastard looters in New Orleans and shoot ’em. Food to feed your family is one thing, but the idiots breaking into stores for the sole purpose to steal valuables (like clothes, electronics, etc…, like many of the looters were doing in full view of TV cameras) need to get beaten to death.
</rant>
New Orleans Is A Mess
Needless to say, the newspaper there isn’t printing today (despite a mention on their site yesterday that they were going to try to use a printing press in Baton Rouge). But they have produced and distributed the entire paper online in PDF format. You can also view Newspaper front pages from around the world at Newseum.
It’s certainly a mess in New Orleans right now. And to think that if I still worked for my previous company, I’d probably be in New Orleans in October, though there’s a small chance the convention might not be held, as it was scheduled to be held at the Hyatt in New Orleans which was pummeled by the storm.
While it’s sad that there was all this destruction in that are, and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody, it’s hard for me to feel sorry for the idiots who, despite plenty of warning, stayed around to watch the storm out. I watched plenty of footage on CNN of folks stranded up on rooftops, having to be rescued by Coast Guard helicopters. But I have ask: Why the hell are you still there? You knew this was coming, you had plenty of warning, so unless you’re part of the clean-up or rescue efforts or some other important official (some media is important, as are some government officials), you should’ve gotten the hell out of town a long time ago. This thing was a Category 5 storm as it moved across the Gulf — I would’ve left town a long time ago.
I also wonder about the idiot who drove his car into a road-turned-lake while a news reporter was on camera. He had to drop his microphone and run into the water to rescue the moron, pulling him through his car window. That clip got played a hundred times on CNN last night and wondered about the sanity of both the reporter for being out in that storm and the nit-wit who drove his sedan into the flood.
As usual, Wikipedia has a ton of links and information regarding the storm, its effects both physically and economically, and a bit of science about the storm as well. For journalists (and even the general public), Al has a bunch of tips and useful links.
People Love Their Pets Too Much
I can’t say that I’d like to meet the people who would buy a stuffed-animal urn to put their deceased pet’s ashes in. That’s just disturbing.
Easier Ego-Surfing For Bloggers
Search Blogdigger, Blogpulse, Daypop, Feedster, and Technorati all via one interface. Link via SEW.
Be Careful Before You Believe A Cute Little Girl
Back in my college newspaper days, I can’t honestly say that this wouldn’t have happened to us. I’d like to think we would’ve done our homework and the research needed to verify her story, but it’s hard not to believe an innocent looking little girl when she says her father died in Iraq. But, in reality, the little girl was part of a bizzare, elaborate hoax pulled on the campus newspaper by an alumni of the school. The little girl wasn’t who she said she was, nor did her “dad” exist. She just thought she was acting as part of a movie.
The newspaper obviously apologized and campus reaction was mixed. The former editor of the paper called himself a bad journalist, but said that he’s innocent of the charges that say he was involved in the scheme.
More coverage in the Chicago Tribune, as well as in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Moral of the story for journalists? Always check your sources. Even if it’s your mom, always do a background check. Don’t believe anything unless you can prove it yourself.
Cutting Edge Technology for Delivering the News
This just came across the CARR-L mailing list re: the hurricane:
I just heard the woman on CNN say their correspondent could send news on Katrina from the French Quarter despite lack of satellite signal “with the use of a new technology called ‘F. T. P.'”
I’m sure the lady reading that script thought this was some new, fancy technology, not one that’s been around for 30 years.
There’s A Web Site For Everything
Like this guide to all the Monkey references in The Simpsons (note this doesn’t include Bigfoot sightings — you’ll have to look through this list for that). Links via Memepool
Movable Type 3.2 Installed
It was a bit more complicated than I would’ve liked, but it was no fault of Six Apart’s, it’s more my fault for having a bunch off odd-ball plugins and template hacks. That, and I accidently uploaded the files initially in binary format, which caused all sorts of trouble.
But things have been updated. I’ve updated the various plugins I use to their 3.2-specific versions (specifically MT Blogroll and MT Notifier). I also updated the basename of my older entries so that I can start using shorter URLs (it’ll probably hurt my search engine rankings on new posts, but I really don’t care all that much). But it will enable me to change titles to include something like “Updated” on the end of the title without completely bulldozing my link to the page.
I was playing with the beta on a separate site, so I knew what to expect, and I knew it would take a while to get this one fully updated/configured to my liking (with 3000+ entries and over 6500 comments, it takes a bit of time to upgrade everything). Overall, the improvements are nice (and there are a ton of them). Hopefully one of these days I’ll have time to redo my templates so that they actually take advantage of some of the new tags and such, but meanwhile, we’re up and running. Let me know if anybody finds any problems.