Wow! And he's unapologetic, too!
Just saw this about New Yorker Journalist Seymour Hersch:

New Yorker magazine's national security correspondent, Seymour Hersh, has been making speeches and radio appearances in which he has told stories of young boys being raped at Abu Ghraib prison, of U.S. forces murdering 36 Iraqi guards, and of alleged involvement of Karl Rove and even the President himself in prisoner interrogation matters. But he now says he "fudged" some of the stories he's told. He tells New York magazine, "I can't fudge what I write. But I can certainly fudge what I say."

He says, "Sometimes I change events, dates and places in a certain way ... [to communicate] another reality that I know of." But, he insists, he only changes the facts to "protect people."

So...to quote Timon in Lion King: "and everybody's okaaaaay with this?"
I remember hearing (on NPR) a speech he made to a group of media people. He was making some outrageous claims about what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. He kept making all of these vauge references: "I can't go into detail here, but if you knew what was really happening..."
I was skeptical at the time, admittedly because of my political views, but also because he wasn't offering facts to back up what he was saying. He was just asking his listeners to "trust him".
So he can fudge what he says, huh? Is it fair to his audience not to tell them that what he's saying may not be entirely true? Isn't that, oh gosh, I don't know, misleading? Isn't that what he's so upset at Bush for supposedly doing to the American people?

via Ed Driscoll  ¶ 1:58 PM 0 comments

  FLTS
That stands for First Lot To Stock, meaning the first group of products being built and ready to ship to customers. In my experience, this date is always unrealistic and often changes multiple times during product development.
The date is always set leaving no room for problems to develop, as they always do.

I worked on a project last year that started in July. It was supposed to be one month long. The company hired a project manager that had worked for us some years ago but had left to raise her adopted daughter. She agreed to come back on a short term basis, about a month, to lead the development of this simple project. Well, after many changes, and much scope creep (one team member said that the scope of the project was growing faster than the national debt)it finally released at the end of January. Yep, that's a one month project that lasted 6 MONTHS!

I'm working on a manual now for a product that is due out in June. This product was formerly due out in February, March, April and May.
I'm willing to bet the doggone thing won't be out before the baby is born (October). But maybe that's just cynicism talking.
I'm working on the manual as though my deadline is June, but I'm not holding my breath.  ¶ 9:53 AM 0 comments

  Misguided protest
This is hilarious. Maybe they should have actually talked to the people on whose behalf they're protesting?

via Althouse.  ¶ 2:24 PM 0 comments

  Quality
"Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort."

John Ruskin (1819-1900)
English art critic and social theorist

I think the key word here is "intelligent". Where I work, it seems that our Quality department just adds red tape and regulation and makes it harder to get anything done, without helping us actually make quality products. For example, a product might go out to customers, and all of the paperwork is impeccable, all of the boxes have been checked off, all of the FDA regulations have been met, BUT the software doesn't do what it's supposed to.

I wonder if this is a common problem in corporations? I suspect it is.  ¶ 9:27 AM 1 comments

  It's all Bush's fault!
Some interesting observations in James Taranto's Best of the Web Today. Yes! It's true! George W. Bush planned the Catholic Church sex scandals and the used Pope's death for political purposes! Uh...ooookay...

Karl Rove and the Pope Plot!
So we're watching Fox News Sunday and there's Juan Williams on the panel of commentators (no transcript online) explaining what went on at the pope's funeral:

I don't think that you can make the argument that somehow President Bush was trying to pull himself away from this occasion. I think he thrust himself in the middle of the funeral quite directly to create an association between himself and the Catholic Church.
And I think it has, for him and for Karl Rove, some good political consequences down the road. And I think that's part of a political calculus that you saw play out here this week. Presidents don't usually go to these funerals. And I think this president made a very calculated decision.

We knew Rove had something to do with the pope's death! Der Spiegel describes an even crazier hypothesis:

Germany's highest ranking female member of parliament has a new theory: the US government set the Catholic pedophilia scandal in motion because it wanted to weaken an already frail pope. That's also why it made Poland its chief partner in the Iraq war: to make the Vatican look bad. . . .
It seems the U.S. had to do something to weaken the influence of the pope, who was an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq. Vollmer finds it all very suspicious that after the war, "Poland was made a top occupying power in Iraq, naturally to weaken the pope's hinterland. Or how then, of all times, the campaign against the Catholic Church and the pedophilia was started, which was, of course, totally justified, but at this point in time was definitely a tit-for-tat response." Vollmer found it somehow strange that the US presidents traveled to the Vatican despite the "tough power struggles."

Hmmm. Sounds mighty suspicious to me.  ¶ 3:59 PM 0 comments

  Eatin' Cod
Erick has interesting tastes in food. Basically, he likes things spicy, vinegary, and well-done. His favorite snack is Peperoncinis, which he later asks me to not let him eat any more.

He also really likes Salt Cod. It comes in a wooden box, and you have to soak it and boil it until it's not too salty to eat. He bought two boxes of it at Race Street Fish Market, and this weekend he prepared it himself. Then, he put it on a plate in the refrigerator.

Last time he got salt cod, I made chowder out of it. It was really yummy, so I asked him if he wanted me to make it again.
"No," he said, "this is eatin' cod."
He fried it with some eggs and had it for breakfast. Oh, yes, and it was drenched in Tabasco.
There's still some left in the refrigerator.
I'm glad I'm over the morning/afternoon/evening sickness, cause this would have been ugly about a month ago.  ¶ 12:49 PM 3 comments

  Thanks, Birgit
Birgit has some great FAQ's for pregnant women. My favorite:

Q. What's the difference between a nine-month pregnant woman and a model?
A. Nothing, if the pregnant woman's husband knows what's good for him.

Ya got that, Erick?

I should add that Erick has been very sweet and affectionate so far, even though I'm not really showing yet, I've gotten, well, rounder. I'm sure he will continue to do so. He always makes me feel beautiful, bless him.

Actually, the tougher thing for him to deal with is probably going to be:

Q. My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's borderline irrational.
A. So what's your question?  ¶ 12:42 PM 0 comments

  Laptop! Laptop!
I'm getting one. Or I should say, we're getting one. It's a Dell Inspiron 1200. I know you Mac people out there are going to sneer at me, but I don't care. I get a discount on Dell computers through work, so heck, I'm going with it.

So I got a good price, but it boggles the mind how a computer which costs $712 dollars somehow ended up costing $1,000 by the time I got done. I added virus protection, and got software to help me transfer everything over, and added a 1 year warranty. Then there was California sales tax, and also, a California state environmental fee. Lovely.

Anyhow, I get it in 3-5 days. Yay for me.  ¶ 12:32 PM 2 comments