Aside

My response to this earlier post on Berkeley pizzerias is up on Slice.

This is my Columbia J-school buddy Michael Keller who mooned Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, Mississippi early this morning. He’s one of the authors of Eye of the Storm. (Reuters Photo 2.) Stay safe (and dry), fellas.

Eugene Tsui, Architect: The last attempt at a bridge designed to span the Strait of Gibraltar was a design by U.S. engineer T.Y.Lin in 1986 which would require three support pylons one mile high and footings that plunge to the sea bottom one half mile down underwater and then sink an additional quarter of a mile destroying the existing ecology of the sea bottom surrounding it significantly disturbing the marine environment of the area. Lin’s design was based on previous…

Some buddies of mine from Columbia are blogging their experiences down in New Orleans Biloxi, Mississippi: Eye of the Storm

“I still am bitter to a large degree, but then I think about what Jackie Robinson once told me,” [Former Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe] said. “He said, ‘You’ve got to change one letter in that word. Change the ‘i’ to an ‘e.’ Forget about bitter, try to make things better.’ “ — LA Times, August 28 2005

According to a piece in Computerworld, one of Macworld’s sister publications. About 8 million passports are renewed annually out of some 57 million passports in circulation. Last I tried to get this information from State Dept. I was told that I couldn’t have it due to “security reasons.”

Dude! Look at how many Persians are speaking at Web 2.0! Hossein Eslambolchi, CTO, AT&T Omid Kordestani, VP Sales, Google Yusuf Mehdi, Senior VP, Microsoft Pierre Omidyar, Founder, eBay Safa Rashtchy, Analyst, Piper Jaffrey

Gen. Wesley Clark: On the military side, the vast effort underway to train an army must be matched by efforts to train police and local justices. Canada, France and Germany should be engaged to assist. Neighboring states should also provide observers and technical assistance. In military terms, striking at insurgents and terrorists is necessary but insufficient. Military and security operations must return primarily to the tried-and-true methods of counterinsurgency: winning the hearts and minds of the populace through civic action,…

So last night I went with Aaron over to Amoeba in The Haight to catch the free show by The New Pornos. I’ve actually never been that far down Haight, but it seems rather cool and I’d like to spend a Saturday strolling it. Fortunately for me the 7 and 71 buses go straight from Montgomery BART (2nd/Market) to literally across the street from Amoeba. We arrived a little early and perused their music. That’s the first time in awhile…

AP: The Associated Press Wednesday, August 24, 2005; 4:02 PM VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson insisted Wednesday that he did not call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, despite comments broadcast on his program two days earlier. “I didn’t say ‘assassination,’” Robertson said Wednesday on his Christian Broadcast Network show “The 700 Club” about remarks reported by The Associated Press and other media outlets. “I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’ ‘Take him…