Students at the University of Texas at San Antonio were determined to uphold standards at their school. They wrote an honor code that discouraged both cheating and plagiarizing. But they weren't going to waste a lot of time writing the darn thing themselves. The wording of a draft of the honor code appears to match the honor code at Brigham Young University. The student in charge of the project says the lack of a proper citation was just an oversight.
Barack Obama: His pastor is not running for president. He is. If you have some sort of evidence to suggest that Obama is a racist, let's hear it. Otherwise, stop rewording the same question about his pastor's beliefs to him, in hopes that he'll trip up and make a gaffe that you'll then use to discredit him throughout the campaign. It's a waste of time and a distraction. Plus, when it comes to not saying the wrong thing, this guy's good...
Elliot Spitzer has done for prostitution what Bill Clinton did for blow jobs. We now have a dialog going on about whether or not prostitution is really that bad after all. I note that of the many arguments made in the above-linked article, none of them address the morality of it. Is it so wrong for something to be illegal because we, as a society, agree that it's not acceptable behavior? It's not about the particular woman or the particular man, it's about the special place that sex has in our moral code, and how prostitution runs counter to that belief.
Then again, maybe I have an old set of morals. Spitzer, a man who not only paid a prostitute for sex, but also showed an unbelievable level of hypocrisy, violated the public trust, and completely disrespected his wife and children, slinks off into the shadows, waiting for it to be safe to sign a book deal, while we discuss the relative victim-hood of Ashley Alexandra Dupre (a.k.a., "Kristin"). In the meantime, Ms. Dupre - far from being vilified - is being celebrated as an overnight celebrity. Her pictures are on the front page of all the local newspapers, her MySpace page is the most popular page on the site, her music is making her tens of thousands of dollars on the Internet, and Larry Flynt doesn't think she'll pose in Penthouse magazine because she'll have too many other, more lucrative offers. If she's really lucky, her book will come out around the same time as Spitzer's, and they'll both sail on to even more fame and fortune.
And speaking of coming out...
Jim and Dina Matos McGreevey: Attention starved, are we? You're no longer public officials. You are not relevant to the Elliot Spitzer case at all. Dina did some television to give us insight into how Mrs. Spitzer was feeling while standing next to Elliot at the podium - that's fine, I guess. But if you two want to continue embarrassing each other, please go find someone who's interested.
Hillary Clinton: After eight years of George W. Bush, your husband's presidency has taken on the soft sheen of an articulate President who led the nation to soaring economic heights. Thank you for reminding us about all the lawyering, maneuvering, technicality-laced rhetoric that peppered those eight years. Between you claiming the mantle of experience, pressuring super-delegates to vote against the public will, and drumming up fake controversy ("He's not a Muslim, as far as I know"; "Shame on you, Barack Obama!"; "It's not all about words") in an attempt to sway the electorate, you've brought it all back in spades. Also, John McCain, a twenty-six year veteran of the House and Senate and author of several significant pieces of legislation, is sitting on the sidelines taking careful notes about your views on experience, in the event he has to run against you for the presidency. Oh, and his approval rating just hit 67% - its highest in eight years. You're not helping yourself, Senator...
Iraq: It seems Iraqis are uniformly feeling better about their lives, the future of their country, and the United States' decision to invade (49% now believe the invasion was a good thing, up from 37% last August). As Glenn Reynolds would say, read the whole thing. You'd hear more about this in the mainstream media, I'm sure, but they're too busy covering racist pastors, hookers, ex-gubernatorial three-ways and dirty campaign tactics.
Sponsored by the Pentagon, the report found no "direct operational link" between Saddam's government in Iraq and bin Laden's Al Qaeda terror ring before the U.S. invasion, an official told McClatchy.
The Bush administration put forth the argument that there was a connection between Saddam and bin Laden when it made the case to go to war with Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Ah ha! We've got 'em now! This is big news! They LIED to us! Rumsfeld himself said there was "bulletproof evidence" that Al Qaeda were in Iraq. And now, six years and 600,000 documents later, we finally find out that it's all untrue! What shocking, shocking news!
There is also evidence that around this time Bin Ladin sent out a number of feelers to the Iraqi regime, offering some cooperation. None are reported to have received a significant response. According to one report, Saddam Hussein's efforts at this time to rebuild relations with the Saudis and other Middle Eastern regimes led him to stay clear of Bin Ladin.[74]
In mid-1998, the situation reversed; it was Iraq that reportedly took the initiative. In March 1998, after Bin Ladin's public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Ladin. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Ladin's Egyptian deputy, Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis. In 1998, Iraq was under intensifying U.S. pressure, which culminated in a series of large air attacks in December.[75]
Similar meetings between Iraqi officials and Bin Ladin or his aides may have occurred in 1999 during a period of some reported strains with the Taliban. According to the reporting, Iraqi officials offered Bin Ladin a safe haven in Iraq. Bin Ladin declined, apparently judging that his circumstances in Afghanistan remained more favorable than the Iraqi alternative. The reports describe friendly contacts and indicate some common themes in both sides' hatred of the United States. But to date we have seen no evidence that these or the earlier contacts ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship. Nor have we seen evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States.[76]
The sources cited above are unnamed intelligence reports from 1998, 1999 and 2001, as well as a CIA report called "Ansar al-Islam:Al Qa'ida's Ally in Northeastern Iraq," CTC 2003-40011CX, Feb. 1, 2003. An Al Qaeda operative also claimed that the two sides discussed chemical weapons and explosives training, but then later recanted that testimony (Report footnotes: p. 470).
OK, so two things:
First, it continues to amaze me that people can't understand the difference between "no relationship" and "no operational relationship." Back in 2002-2003, here's what we knew: Meetings in Iraq in March of 1998, meetings in Afghanistan in July of 1998, and similar meetings in 1999. And so, when asked, the President and the SecDef both claimed evidence of a relationship. After interrogating prisoners, capturing documents in Afghanistan and Iraq, and continued intelligence gathering, we reached the conclusion that this relationship never blossomed into anything operational.
So, like the weapons of mass destruction, we got it wrong. Evidence existed on both sides, and Bush/Rumsfeld picked the wrong side. Were they cherry picking to put the nation on a war footing? Probably. Were they knowingly lying to the American people to line the pockets of Haliburton? Well, that's quite a leap, given what we've read above. But, for reasons that continue to mystify me, it's simply not good enough to stand up and shout, "Bush was wrong!" It has to be "Bush lied!"
Of course, I'm screaming into the wind here. "Bush lied" has been printed, spoken and repeated so many times, that the above three paragraphs read like some Limbaugh/Hannity One Act play, rather than the careful result of the most respected bi-partisan commission in the country's history. C'est la guerre, I guess...
Second thing: why is this considered shocking news in March of 2008? I know not everyone has read the 9/11 Commission report, but surely someone in the news media has, no? Hasn't anyone realized that this "shocking news" is four years old? I mean they even use the same term - "operational relationship." It's like the media is plagiarizing itself.
The monstrosity to the right is currently sitting in Rockefeller Center, right where the famous Christmas Tree stands during the holiday season. And if you think it looks weird in the picture, understand that the 3,390 LED bulbs light up in a sequence that "replicates the movement of water." In other words, it's a giant, electric pseudo-fountain.
Otherwise known as pop art. This particular ahem..."work of art" is entitled "Electric Fountain" (creative, huh?) is brought to us by acclaimed British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, and is on display at the coveted spot in front of 30 Rock all the way until April 5th.
Yeah, sure - you don't care. You don't have to walk past it every morning.
Not only have studies predicted the potential sale of an additional one million machines (22% increase in sales, 80% increase in market share) [if Apple could run Windows natively], but these studies don't even address the corporate market. If the architecture on these machines is pure (i.e,. the Windows environment is an exact duplicate of what you'd find on a Dell or Compaq machine), I believe Apple can expect to quickly capture some portion of the much larger, and more sustainable, corporate PC market.
Apple on Thursday unveiled a list of upcoming features, including support for Microsoft Exchange e-mail server, that Apple hopes will convince corporations to adopt the iPhone as the device of choice for mobile workers.
During a news conference at the computer maker's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs promised that the iPhone in its upcoming software update in June would contain "the long list of important features that enterprise customers have told us they need to really drive iPhone use."
The list included the ability to push e-mail and calendar items from servers to the iPhone, synchronize contact lists, and enforce security policies. In addition, the iPhone would support Cisco's client for secure connections to an IP-base virtual private network, and would have technology that a company could use to remotely wipe out data on a lost or stolen iPhone.
One of the most requested corporate features is support for Exchange, Jobs said. To meet the demand, Apple licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol for connecting the iPhone's e-mail client directly to an Exchange server. As a result, e-mail, calendaring and contact items can pushed directly to the smartphone, a feature that Apple demonstrated at the event.
This is huge. Not only has Apple finally thrown its hat into the ring with Dell, HP, and others for the corporate desktop, they've now entered into the much faster growing, much more dynamic corporate handheld market. Who's going to buy a Blackberry when they could have an iPhone that does all the same things and more?
The article also says that Apple is releasing a SDK for enterprises to build their own iPhone applications. This allows companies to brand their own access, implement their own additional security features, etc., essentially removing many of the possible excuses for not buying the product. And since a WindowsMobile device has yet to take hold in this space, the issue of "standard software architecture" has not yet been achieved on handhelds, forcing corporate IT departments to support heterogeneous environments (i.e., RIMM running on their Exchange servers).
The only downside is price. iPhones are much more expensive than Blackberry's right now, but as the volume increases dramatically, the cost will decrease. And when people start getting them at work, the cost/features of the backend network & data plan will become less of an issue. Witness how many people have Blackberries that they pay for themselves. Almost no one. QED.
It's refreshing to see Apple play the game in front of them, rather than constantly insisting that the game is unfair, or that the rules ought to change. I think this is going to be huge...
From the Slate-hosted political blog, Trailhead, we have the winner of the "Name an Ice Cream Flavor after Barack Obama" contest: "Yes, Pecan!"
Top runners up include "Barackadamia Nut" and "Neopolitician," which have been declared the front runners for those parts of the country where "Pecan" rhymes with "Oh, it's on!" rather than "Yes, We Can!" Other suggestions include Peanut Butter Barackle and Obamana Split. Baracky Road and Obamaberry were disqualified because, "we've got to draw the line somewhere."
So, anyone have any Clinton or McCain inspired Ice Cream flavors? I'll start you off: For Hillary: Health Care Crunch. For McCain? How about McCaindy Coated Cookie Dough?
Go ahead, top that!
(and not with a cherry. BA DUM!)
Update #1: "Grand Ol' Pistachio, made with real McCain sugar!" - Ted Aronson (from the Penn Band Listserv)
Bill Moffit passed away on Wednesday in his home in Jacksonville, Florida. He was 82.
Most of you are probably thinking, "Who is Bill Moffit?" Then again, most of my regular readers have been in a marching band with me, so probably not.
Here's the bottom line: if you've ever heard a marching band perform, particularly a high school marching band, then the odds are almost 100% that you've heard a Bill Moffit arrangement. He would arrange commonly used songs like The Star Spangled Banner in such a way that they sounded good but weren't overly complicated, so a group of non-professional musicians could play them. As such, almost every high school and college did just that.
The above linked article says he arranged 450 songs for Marching Band, but I'm actually surprised it wasn't more than that, given how often I've seen his name. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that he directed the fanfare trumpets at the Olympic Games in 1984 and the Pan American Games in 1986.
Good for him. Talk about a legacy that will live on forever... (Hat tip: Kushol Gupta)
A big ol' tip of the hat to Hal Emmer, who pointed out gethuman.com in a recent e-mail discussion. This is a site listing the customer service phone numbers for (at the time of this writing) 559 different companies, along with a strategy for reaching an actual human being when you call (example: Press #; at prompt press #; at prompt press #; at prompt press 3.)
There's also a facility for people to rate their customer service experience and report how long they waited on hold, so you can review a quick history before you dial.
This looks like a very useful tool, and one that I'll be putting on my Cool Links page for future reference...
I'm working from home today in preparation for a quick trip to Philadelphia this evening, and this is what I wake up to:
Homeland Security Says No Sign of 'Imminent Threat' to U.S. in Times Square Blast NEW YORK -- The Homeland Security department said there was no sign of an "imminent threat" to the United States in the blast that tore through an empty military recruiting station in Times Square early Thursday morning, according to Reuters.
But the agency also announced Thursday that the FBI would be joining the probe into what caused the explosion.
The blast occurred about 3:45 a.m. when an explosive device went off, causing minor damage to the recruiting station in Times Square -- which is heavily populated with New York City tourists [during the day]. Hotel guests were shaken by the force in their rooms high above the scene.
Police blocked off the area to investigate the explosion, which shattered the station's glass entryway. No one was injured.
Of note here: subway service under Times Square bypassed the station briefly, but then resumed normal service. The police blocked off the area at 3:45AM, but were letting normal traffic through when rush hour started (roughly four hours later).
Apparently, it takes more than a bomb in a public place to spook us nowadays. I mean, if the second most read story of the day were something like 'Death Star' Gamma-Ray Gun Pointed Straight at Earth, then there might be cause for concern, but what are the odds of that happening?
Folks can sign up for the numbers at shelters across the city. The numbers will be local and personal -- i.e., each person will get a unique [San Francisco] area code number that will never expire. The number will ring a voice-mail box that will play a personalized greeting; homeless people can check their messages by dialing in from any phone.
Google announced the plan at an event with Mayor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday. The service, Newsom said, will help people who are filling out job applications or are awaiting medical test results. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Google has already handed out more than 4,000 numbers.
This is one of those rare win/win/win opportunities for everyone involved. The homeless win because they now have a significant lifeline out of the vicious cycle of homelessness - a tool to help get a job, medical services, etc.. The prospective employers, doctors, etc. win because they have ways of reaching people who ordinarily would be "off the grid." And Google wins, because they can now build this service into their existing suite of tools, driving even more traffic to their properties, increasing and expanding the value of their advertising placements. Also, there's the increase in good will with the general public that will likely result.
Now, if only their awesomeness would return to their stock price... (full disclosure: I'm a shareholder)
Queries were up slightly this month (733 vs. 662). Billy Joel, who fell back into the #2 slot last month, made a surge to 180 (up 65%), but did not overtake Technology related queries, which held remarkably steady at 220. This month also saw the resurgence of some favorites - Celebrity Look Alikes up 53% to 58, Overrated Films up 160% to 26, Politics up 31% to 21, queries about my family up 82% to 20, and queries about speech accents up 113% to 17. There were also a new category - 11 queries about television and TV personalities (owing, I think, to the writer's strike and the new seasons of several reality shows that I've blogged about).
The Referring Sites
Referral site of the month awards go to jeffporten.com and jasonbennion.com, who were responsible for 32 and 13 pageviews each. Also, I've apparently been linked to by facebook (more specifically, UPenn's Facebook), which provided 14 pageviews, although I'm not a member so I'm not really sure what the link is for/about.
The Keywords
All told, 733 queries resulted in hits to Familygreenberg.com in February (71 more than were used in January). Here are some of the more entertaining samples:
We start with Billy Joel. Although he came in #2, his queries are the most entertaining this month (leave it to the Rock Star to have entertaining web queries...):
Query
Rank / # of Results
Comments
all my life billy joel traduzione
>500 / 2,470
When I first read this, given Joel's recent rehab history, I assumed "traduzione" was a prescription drug. As it turns out, it means "translation" in Italian. So this is just an Italian Google user who wants to see Joel's lyrics in Italian.
billy joel at madison square garden for farewell performance
3 / 39,900
Given his current tour schedule, the rumors of his "farewell performance" seem to be greatly exaggerated
billy joel live in hartford disc 3
10 / 97,900
Why do I get the feeling that "Live in Harvard" is not a (professionally released) CD?
"billy joel" "randy jackson"
78 / 113,000
Can we infer from this query the (Google-generated) rumor that Joel is appearing on American Idol again this year?
bruce springsteen, hearing loss
>500 / 140,000
OK, it's not Billy Joel, but it's close: does this mean we can start calling Bruce the "Boss with Hearing Loss?"
Next, we move on to some interesting queries about me or my family:
Well, I do have a band, but it doesn't come up in the search results. Ironically, though, five of the top twenty results refer to me and the University of Pennsylvania Marching Band (which is definitely a band I'm associated with a great deal, but by no means my band).
greenberg family foundation
432 / 1,290,000
How I wish. But no, sorry, that's not me. . .
i should be sleeping greenberg
1 / 230,000
Check it out - someone who seems to have actually been looking for my blog. And guess what - the #1 search result. The world is officially in perfect harmony. . .
sherry smile
6 / 447,000
I just need to point out here that of the 447,000 "sherry smile"s out there, my wife's is #6. Not bad. . .
Politics is heating up, so how about a couple in that category:
Query
Rank / # of Results
Comments
brian greenberg + 2008 campaign
1 / 253,000
If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve. . .
bush endorses clinton
>500 / 1,720,000
Heh. Here's what happens when you forget to put quotes in a Google query. Sure - those three words have appeared on many web pages together, but in that order? Probably not. . .
And then there's always the weird & wacky:
Query
Rank / # of Results
Comments
mushroom trip after lasik surgery
>500 / 34,200
Ooh boy - I'm thinking maybe the surgery didn't go so well. If the world looks like a mushroom trip, you better consult your eye doctor again.
the year 2176
>500 / 1,760,000
I can't imagine there's a lot of info on the web about this topic just yet, but you never know. . .
what is the time of the longest superbowl anthem
>500 / 60,400
Who says there are too many statistics in sports?
dolly porten
88 / 14,300
This one's just for my friend, Jeff Porten. I'll also point out that I was hit #88, so there are 87 other ways the term "Dolly Porten" is relevant to the world in some way.
It's like a Google riddle. My guess is "Mickey Mouse."
what kind of english accent do you have
5 / 489,000
Best query of the month, IMHO. 'Cuz ya know, the French English accent is good, but the Spanish English accent is so much better. . .
And finally, the Adult/Porn-Related queries. The days of being hit with hundreds of these seem to have subsided, so we only have a few worth mentioning:
Query
Rank / # of Results
Comments
adult porn pitchers
>500 / 141,000
Poor speller, or a new definition for the term "relief pitcher?"
dirty pitchers of ashley tisdale
>500 / 296,000
I Should Be Sleeping - the blog of choice for poor spellers with inappropriate thoughts about Disney movies.
family nude camps
>500 / 589,000
"Hey, watch your language! This is a family nude camp!"
Familygreenberg.com Health Check - February Edition
Metric
January
February
% Change
Visits
1,245
1,436
+15.34%
Pageviews
1,803
2,059
+14.20%
Pages/Visit
1.45
1.43
-0.99%
Avg Time on Site
0:49
0:45
-9.31%
Bounce Rate
81.77%
83.36%
+1.94%
% New Visitors
86.99%
86.28%
-0.81%
Well, after two months of down statistics, I guess it's hardly an accomplishment to say you grew month over month. Then again, the trend could have continued, so I guess I shouldn't look a gift pageview in the mouth.
The monstrosity to the right is currently sitting in Rockefeller Center, right where the famous Christmas Tree stands during the holiday season. And if you think it looks weird in the picture, understand that the 3,390 LED bulbs light up in a sequence that "replicates the movement of water." In other words, it's a giant, electric pseudo-fountain.
From the Slate-hosted political blog,