] During the month of June in 1969, Edward Kennedy was
] involved in a horrible car accident. He had been driving
] back from a party on Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, and
] had driven off the edge of a bridge. Luckily, he was not
] severely injured; however, Mary Jo Kopechne, a woman who
] was in his car, was killed. She was a 29-year-old blond
] secretary in Washington D.C., who worked for Senator
] Robert F. Kennedy and Senator George Smanthers. Edward
] Kennedy's wife was home with their children and had not
] attended the party.
]
] The accident was not reported until eight hours after the
] car had sunk to the bottom of the river. On the following
] Monday, Kennedy was charged for leaving the scene of the
] accident. In Massachusetts, a manslaughter charge is
] always given when someone leaves the scene of a deadly
] accident. This was the second time that Kennedy had been
] in a fatal accident; five years earlier he had been in a
] serious plane crash and had broken his back.

Seeing all the blather about Bush and whether or not he was AWOL, reminded me of this incident, when something bad really *did* happen.

Chappaquiddick

] President Bush's spokesman said Wednesday that Democrats
] who continue to demand more proof that the president
] reported for National Guard duty in Alabama are "trolling
] for trash."

I agree. This whole AWOL thing feels absurd to me. Some Democrats are trying to stir up trouble over something vague that may or may not have happened OVER THIRTY YEARS AGO? Come on. If this is the best they can do, then Bush definitely deserves re-election.

To be honest, even if it was true (and I don't believe it is), it wouldn't have an impact on my opinion. Someone cut school for a day? Big whoop.

This is one of the reasons I never want to run for office. I mean, I know I'm a good person, I'm smart, I'm ethical, I do my homework, I've got no police record more serious than the occasional speeding ticket, and I believe strongly in doing the right thing for the community, instead of for myself. But gawd, if my life were opened to public scrutiny, I know I'd stand zero chance.

Spokesman Defends Bush's Military Service

] According to The AP, Muhsin Khadr al-Khafaji, No. 48 on
] the 55 most-wanted list, was turned over last weekend to
] US troops in the Baghdad area, the officials disclosed.

Only 11 more to go. Gotta collect 'em all!

US arrests another former Baath Party official

] U.S. Attorney Stephen Patrick O'Meara said late Monday
] that the investigation focuses on unlawful entry onto
] military property at Camp Dodge on Nov. 16, and whether
] plans were laid for that at a conference the day before
] at Drake.
]
] Suggestions that the investigation is related to the
] Patriot Act "are not accurate," O'Meara said.

FBI explains request for data about war protestors

One of the teens from PhreakNIC, Michael Kozlowicz (you may know him as "The1"), filled me in on an event recently. In December, during a free period (flex block) at his high school in Carpentersville Illinois, another student asked him about web proxies. Michael explained to the other student how they worked.

A few weeks later, Michael got called in to the Principal's office, who asked him about the conversation. Michael felt he did nothing wrong, and explained in great detail what he'd said to the other student. He even put it in writing and signed his name.

To his surprise, he was then suspended from school, and eventually expelled.

He went up before a review board today, and read them a statement (linked below). After hearing the statement, the board then voted unanimously to make the expulsion permanent.

I have my own thoughts on the efficacy of the statement, but I'll leave it to you to make up your own minds.

Statement from Student Expelled for Recommending Web Proxy at School

For those who know some vi and C, this will probably be funny. For everyone else, you can probably safely skip this one. :)

Geek Humor: I can't get this program to compile

] BAGHDAD, Feb. 9 -- Insurgents in Iraq sought the help of
] senior leaders of the al Qaeda terrorist network for a
] plan to spark a "civil war" that would pit the country's
] religious and ethnic groups against each other and
] prevent a transfer of sovereignty from U.S. occupation
] authorities to Iraqis, U.S. officials said today, citing
] a document seized from an al Qaeda courier.
  . . .
] The document was on a computer disk that was found in a raid
] on a terrorist safe house in Baghdad about a month ago,
] officials said.

I'm curious whether or not it was encrypted, and if so, how.

Washington Post: Insurgents Attempting to Ferment 'Civil War' in Iraq Sought Al Qaeda Help

] Tim Russert: And we are in the Oval Office this morning with
] the President of the United States. Mr. President, welcome
] back to Meet The Press.

I watched the interview, and listened, but I dunno if it's going to change any minds. I think people who had already made up their mind up to hate Bush, just came out still hating him, and those who already supported the war, still supported it after the show.

In any case, I still think the transcript is worth reading, but do it quick, since it *is* an election year, so of course it's going to be rapidly and thoroughly misquoted by both sides. ;)

NBC -- Meet the Press with George W. Bush

What those blurry/anime/cropped photos *really* mean.

Humor: Interpreting Friendster (Orkut) Photos

] Engineers deleted files from Spirit's flash memory and
] then reformatted it, ending two-and-a-half weeks of
] "crisis mode." Trosper said the long-distance repair job
] was nerve-racking "but in the end the spacecraft did
] exactly what we wanted it to do, and it performed
] perfectly and it's in great health right now."
]
] The problem was simply an accumulation of computer files
] that kept consuming the spacecraft's random-access memory
] "and eventually we ran out," said Glenn Reeves, the
] flight software architect.
]
] The computer software detected the memory shortfall as "a
] very severe error" and behaved properly in trying to
] solve the problem by resetting itself. However, each time
] the system came back up, it would detect the same severe
] error and reset, triggering a cascade of more than 130
] reboots.

I have to admit a certain amount of awe at this particular tech support job. I have enough trouble getting my own computers and servers to run, even when I'm sitting right there in front of them. The idea of doing this remotely, from millions of miles away, sending tiny bursts of signals to this little robot which is sitting on the freezing cold Martian surface all by itself, just amazes me.

Hats off to tech support!

NASA declares Mars Spirit rover 'healed' after memory repairs