The Rally of Turkey started today, and, as expected, it’s been a rough event with several notable retirements. But first, the good news. Harri Rovenpera is leading the rally by a whisker over Francois Duval and Tommi Makinen. Other pleasant surprises include Giles Panizzi holding fourth place in his privateer Peugeot, and Armin Schwarz in seventh (he was as high as second).
Now the bad news. Petter Solberg retired during SS4 when he spun in a corner and mashed his suspension. Sebastien Loeb also retired, but in a more bizarre way–he got lost between stages and ran out of fuel. Most of the time, the cars are required to drive on their own between stages on open roads, and Seb’s co-driver obviously had some issues with his map. Marcus Gronholm had power steering issues on SS3, dropping him over 3 minutes off the lead. Gronholm isn’t pleased and he sounds like a poor loser (he doesn’t want to race anymore 
). Richard Burns also had early issues, but is beginning to find his form and is moving up the leaderboard.
The remaining Citroens of Colin McCrae and Carlos Sainz have been doing well, especially they’ve been running first on the stages, effectively sweeping the roads for the other drivers. If the cars can handle the beatings, they should be in the fight for a podium spot.
Posted on 28 February 2003
In case you haven’t heard, Fred Rogers passed away early this morning.
Posted on 27 February 2003
I heard this interesting segment on NPR this afternoon, and I couldn’t wait til the morning to mention it. They are doing a series on Muslims in Europe, and today’s segment talked about Muslims in France. Interesting stuff. In a nutshell, the French citizens generally look like xenophobic bigots, who refuse to acknowledge the existence of the Muslims. In fact, the treatment of Muslims in parts of France closely resembles the American South of the 1950s and 60s.
I find it a bit interesting that a country which is so against a war in Iraq because of what it might do to the population there wants absolutely nothing to do with a similiar group within their own country.
Posted on 26 February 2003
If you don’t follow the sports world closely, you probably haven’t heard that Colonial tournament. This has been met with all sorts of opinions (as expected). Many of the pros on the PGA tour don’t really like the idea, though this is to hide the fact that they don’t want to be beaten by a woman. Sorenstam isn’t just any old golfer. She’s the most successful female golfer in history, and based on results alone, she is more successful than even Tiger Woods. But because she’s a woman, most people don’t know this. No “I am Annika Sorenstam” commercials for her.
The general opinion from the talking heads in the sports media is that Sorenstam will more than likely make the cut at the Colonial and will do fairly well. It’s a short course, which won’t give the men and their huge shots a big advantage, though Sorenstam will have to the hit the ball further on her approaches to the greens. And most folks in the media like the idea of Sorenstam competing with the boys, even if it’s just to see her fail miserable.
I came across this interesting article on ESPN’s site this morning. It seems Brian Kontak wants to play on the women’s tour in the interest of “parity.” You haven’t heard of Brian Kontak? Me neither. He doesn’t hold a PGA tour card (meaning he can’t play with the big boys), though he has had success in the Canadian tour and some of the minor tour events. He claims that this isn’t a publicity stunt–he just wants his chance to win on the LPGA tour. Ummm….riiiiiight. I give Bob Haring, the columnist, a lot of credit for calling Kontak out as a publicity hound. If he’s so interested in making a name for himself as a golfer, he should do it on golf’s premier stage, the PGA tour (which is what Sorenstam is trying to do herself). If Kontak plays (which isn’t a given, since LPGA rules state that competitors must be female, unlike the PGA, which has no gender rules) and fails to win, or worse yet, fails to make the cut, what does he gain? Nothing. He hasn’t done anything positive for his sport. If Sorenstam fails to make the cut, she’ll still be seen as a bit of hero for at least trying to play and win with the big dogs.
Posted on 25 February 2003
Why does every bike shop in our fine city have an absolutely hideous web site? How bad can they be, you say? Well, most of them don’t have any good information on them, and the designs are so ugly that you expect text. Sheesh.
Posted on 21 February 2003
I found these articles yesterday in Reason about the government’s ongoing war with fat. Interesting stuff, but many of them are nothing more than libertarian knee-jerk reactions that do nothing more than take a stance against the government just because it’s the government. For example:
The belief that things like fat and sugar and salt aren’t really bad for us. On the surface, I agree, but only if you eat them in moderation. Eating a Big Mac a day isn’t really moderation. The stance Reason takes? Let the fast food folks do what they want, and let the people be responsible for what they eat. If we have a nation of fat people, so be it. It’s their own damn fault. Several of the articles also site scientific studies that show that fat is really bad for people, and the government has decided to fight an enemy that doesn’t exist. In fact, the war on fat is compared to the war on tobacco.
Here’s where I can’t stand the positions the magazine takes, namely that the market doesn’t count when they say people have to take responsbility for their actions. That is their guiding principle for both issues….fat people wouldn’t be fat if they didn’t eat so much, and people dying of lung cancer should have realised that smoking was bad for them. I don’t have a problem with that. People should take responsibility for their actions. But where is the call for responsibility for the manufacturers? No where is anyone saying the manufacturers are responsible as well. I’m as much of a capitalist as the next guy, but why isn’t the market subject to the same criticisms of the consumer? I am not a supporter of the tobacco settlement, and I’m not a fan of the government getting too heavily involved in the markets, but the stance Reason takes is unacceptable–the market and its players are just as responsible as the consumers.
Posted on 20 February 2003
In case you’re all wondering what to do get us (or, more specifically, the anklebiter), look no further than right here.
Posted on 20 February 2003
Just got finished configuring Tomcat and Apache for the upcoming PNC project. I’ve never configured Tomcat (a servlet/JSP engine) from scratch before. It’s a bit of chore, and I don’t quite have Apache handling the requests to Tomcat correctly (I have to type http://localhost:8080/test instead of just http://localhost/test), but that’s a minor inconvenience.
Posted on 19 February 2003
First, for anyone keeping track, I didn’t take the job offer. We were just too far about on compensation. No hard feelings on either side though: they understand my situation, and I understood theirs. Perhaps in six months after they get funding, they’ll call me again. In the meantime, I’ll be starting a project for PNC next week. Simple stuff….converting some existing Perl web scripts to Java/JSP. By the time that work is finished, I should have a handful of other projects that could take me into the summer or beyond.
I still haven’t added any sort of archive list to this page yet. Sorry (like anyone wants to read my stuff again anyway). Maybe today…..the included templates have a table-based calendar system for the archives, but I’d like to stay away from that format if at all possible. I’m also considering turning on the comments system some time soon….not that I really care what you think 😉
Posted on 19 February 2003
An interesting article on Reason points out the apparent contradictions in the Bush administration’s claims of self-defense as a reason for war with Iraq. If you’re a libertarian anti-warrior, it’s a good read, and provides nice ammunition for arguments with *conservatives.*
Posted on 17 February 2003