2020 Hindsight

3/11 heaviness

Yesterday morning, when I realized it was the 11th of March, I counted up the months between September and March: six. That makes 2 1/2 years since 9/11. That was a passing thought...before I found about the train bombings in Madrid, making this Spain's 3/11, or, since it's European month-and-day accounting, 11/3.

I'm following the news reports, but don't plan on posting much here on an ongoing basis. Here are those who are extensively covering the bombings:

• Wickipedia on the Madrid attacks
• Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit
• Inside Europe: Iberian Notes
• Back Seat Drivers
• Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine
• PapaScott: Death in Madrid
• Wired News: Net Cries out for Madrid

Tsing Loh's Marketplace commentary about her public radio demise

So there I was, heading into a bookstore. Then I heard that Sandra Tsing Loh would be featured on Marketplace talking about, well, you know, what everyone's been talking about. So I sat in the car in the bookstore parking lot to wait to hear her commentary. The engineer *was* paying attention this time around. The link goes to today's Marketplace Show. Scroll down to the story, "Shoulder to Shoulder with Howard Stern." (For some reason, I can't get Firefox to play this, but Safari does. Your Real Audio via php page mileage may vary.)

tentative agreement reached on grocery strike

Just heard this on the radio; The link leads to the MSNBC report. Oh, I hope it's true. Though I customarily shop at Trader Joe's and the latino market around the corner. 70,000 workers have been on strike for the last 4 months.

Well, it's about time!

9/11 panel's gonna get access to White House daily briefing memos, especially the August 2001 one(s).

oh wait. "Under the agreement, the entire commission will be allowed to read versions of the summaries that were edited by the White House." (emphasis mine)

Maher 'Mike' Hawash sentenced; apologizes in court

Remember Free Mike Hawash? The Intel engineer who was initially held for 5 weeks without charges or explanation, who then later was charged and subsequently pled guilty to conspiring to wage war on the U.S.

Hawash ... says he's sorry for his actions and was caught up in an emotional conflict with his religion. He also says he regrets his decision to join a small group supporting the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Because he cooperated with the government and no does not have a prior record, the judge sentenced him to eight years in federal prison with no chance of parole.

Say what?!? (does this 'improve life here'?)

NASA's (At Ames Research Center) has been involved in data mining to create an anti-terror aviation database.

NASA researchers are using data gleaned from flight-safety records, including reports of sick passengers, bad weather and sleepy pilots, to build an antiterror database.

This is shocking to me. Baffling. The article states that NASA's expertise at data mining (to, you know, understand the universe) is being called upon for national security. They're combining flight incident reports with presumably inviolable U.S. Census data. Is this supposed to fit the first part of the NASA Mission Statement? ("To improve life here. To extend life to there. To find life beyond.")

Now, let me tell you who I am: Arar's statement

Read it. [via Jim Roepcke, who has further coverage of Maher Arar]

Now, let me tell you who I am: Arar's statement

I am here today to tell the people of Canada what has happened to me. There have been many allegations made about me in the media, all of them by people who refuse to be named or come forward. So before I tell you who I am and what happened to me, I will tell you who I am not.

QUICK, QUICK! Register for Do Not CALL right now...

Do it now. Because with all the legal battles going on, the FTC is halting its function

"We shut down everything to do with the registry already except the sign-up mechanism and we are in the process of trying to figure out how we do that," Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris told reporters after testifying to a Senate committee. "Unless something happens differently shortly, we'll take orderly steps to accomplish that."

Well, it worked 5 minutes ago. Hope I got in in time before they shut down the registration.

Highland fire

A forest fire has ben burning outside of Highland, in the low part of the San Bernardino mountains--dry brush and beetle kill-off. Remember those lovely pictures of a lake in the mountains? That lake is close (as the crow flies) to the Highland fire, so helicopters have been pumping water from the lake to drop on the fire. Highway 330 (the road to go up the mountain from Highland to Running Springs) is still closed.

Los Angeles Gas Prices.com

User-supplied latest sightings of gas prices all over L.A. (For Regular Unleaded, all prices assume an extra .99 cent)