More Junkmail from Bob!
Wednesday, October 25, 2000Important Stuff.
Votes for Sale
When Gore sells oil reserves to lower the gas price, he's buying votes. When Bush offers tax breaks to special interests he's buying votes. So an Austrian grad student named James decided to do the same. He set up a web site where you could sell your vote to the highest bidder.
He wasn't really serious about it; it was just a joke. The URL is http://voteauction.com. But you won't find the site there. Some politicians from Chicago, where buying and selling jokes is a less nebulous concept, had some local judges shut down the site. A few thousand people had signed up to sell their votes, though.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,39590,00.html
A Design Consideration
Last Thursday Los Angeles Center, the air traffic control center, got a software upgrade. It was kind of like my upgrade to Windows Me on this computer. To be safe, they installed it in the middle of the night. The next morning, the system started enjoying frequent crashes (the computer, not the airplanes), a lot like me on this computer.
A few hundred flights were cancelled. When asked about the problem, Jerry from the FAA said, "Oh well, it worked on 17 other systems. Nobody's perfect."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/478693.asp
International Space Station
The shuttle has landed. They spent the past few days adding on to the space station. It's now about 80 tons, and ready for tenants. Want to see it in person? Here's where and how.
The Real B1
Here's a picture of the real Boeing B1. It was built in 1919. As far as I can tell, there was just one built. It flew for eight years beginning in 1919, and went through 6 engines.
E Dash Mail
Wired News was bought by someone, I forgot who, and now they're required to follow some new writing rules such as using a dash in email. Their readers and writers seem not to like that:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,39651,00.html
At least they're not going back to using the imprecise "pages of information" instead of "megabytes" like the Wall Street Journal did for years. Hopefully.
A New Planet?
Several new planets have been discovered recently, but they've been in orbit around other stars. USA Today announced the discovery a new planet orbiting the sun today. It was also orbiting the sun yesterday. It's considered a minor planet, though, which apparently is another name for asteroid.
Actually, it's called a plutino. I think it's like Pluto only smaller. It's a ball of rocks and ice, probably a collection from a wayward comet. There are thousands of these "minor planets," but this one is the second largest at 350-400 miles in diameter.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/science/planet102400.htm
Pictures of Today
Here are some cool clouds. Steven took this picture.
Here's an boiler at an abandoned mine. I'm not sure how old it is, but they used square nails back then.
Jason on Peak One, near Frisco, Colorado:
Leann on Peak One on her birthday:
Jason afterwards:
A Bowl:
Cathy looking for a rock:
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