Monthly Archives: July 2009

Congratulations to FAMU Law

Florida A&M University (FAMU) law has received full ABA accreditation — a notable turnaround after a rocky patch.

Posted in Florida | 2 Comments

Sorry About the PopUp

For reasons unknown, iraqbodycount.org has started serving a popup instead of its civilian casualty count, so I've disabled that part of the sidebar at least temporarily.

In general there's a fair amount of cruft in the sidebars — should I go on a sidebar diet to speed load time and looks?

UPDATE (8/1): Looks fixed?

Posted in Discourse.net | 2 Comments

The August Air War Begins Early

Progressive groups target health care denier Ben Nelson (DINO-Neb.) in HealthCareCantWait.com.

Apparently they have a significant ad buy scheduled in Nebraska and are raising funds for more.

Posted in Health Care | 2 Comments

Snarkfest!

Brad has outdone himself in Someone Is Saying Something Wrong on the Internet in the White House Briefing Room!.

It begins:

Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal raises his hand in the White House Briefing Room and asks a question:

(1) Is there a point where you really are endangering the planet, where the focus on sub-lunar issues has ben excessive and there's just no way you can properly guard against the threat of the ravening Hexans from North Polar Jupiter

My mistake. He actually said:

(2) Is there a point where you really are soaking the rich, where the carrying capacity of this small group of people has been exceeded and there's just no way you can keep lumping all of the problems of the finances of the United States on 1 percent of those households?

But the truth value of the two statements is the same.

Posted in Econ & Money | Comments Off on Snarkfest!

Fix the ToolTips Behind Taskbar Problem

A nifty utility fixes the Tooltips-Behind-Taskbar problem. See Fix Windows Tooltips Showing Behind Taskbar for details.

Amazingly, it seems Microsoft has known about this problem since Win 95, and it persists not just in XP but also Vista.

Is it fixed in Windows 7, aka 'the best Vista Service Pack ever'?

Posted in Software | Comments Off on Fix the ToolTips Behind Taskbar Problem

Welcome Home

We are back in Miami. The return journey was notable for its length, and especially for the ineptitude of baggage handling at MIA on our flight from Chicago. I'm used to the idea that you never get a bag off a plane in less than 29 minutes — the airport boasts that 95% of flights get their first bag within 30 minutes — but 50 minutes? For a domestic flight? On a weekday evening?

Someone did manage to get three or four bags off our flight about 35 minutes after we landed — and I bet they log it as within 30 minutes — but the fact is that not one more bag came off until about 50 minutes after the flight landed, so pretty much the entire plane's passengers were there (mostly tourists from the look of them) getting more and more steamed in the hot, crowded, low ceilinged baggage claim area around carousel 24.

MIA is festooned with signs bragging that it was selected as the 'airport of the year' last year.

About the 45 minute mark I went to the nearby baggage handling desk to ask if they had a complaint form. The man looked at me as if I was insane, or speaking a language he never heard of. Once that failed to drive me off, he started tapping on his computer screen. No, they don't have complaint forms, but there's a long-distance number you can call 24/7 or a PO Box you can write to. The lady behind me in the line said she was there for the same reason – to find out what they'd done with our flight's bags.

I was afraid I might know what was going on: could it be that the ramp rats were back? (In the past MIA has been plagued with a baggage theft ring.)

Then again, maybe it was the MIA TSA. They won an award too.

In the end, the bags appeared, and we dragged ourselves home.

Posted in Miami | 14 Comments