Lee Iacocca: Bush And Cheney Are “Bozos”

Maverick former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca takes aim at Bush and Cheney, calling them “clueless bozos” in his new book, Where Have All The Leaders Gone? Read this excerpt:

Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
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The Ultimate Zaurus Accessory

There’s a certain charm to running a full-blown operating system on one’s PDA, like running Linux on the Sharp Zaurus. The charm has its costs, though: full-blown operating systems eat batteries like they’re going out of style. Thus my Zaurus (or “Z”) has been an interesting toy but one not as useful as it could be because it must never stray too far from a battery charger.

This week I found the missing piece to making my Z useful: a combination USB Hotsync/Charge cable. This $6 cable allows me to sync my Z to my laptop when I’m on the road and to charge it without having to drag along the docking station and transformer. All I do it plug the cable into my laptop and it charges via the USB voltage. One cable does it all!

NBC News Is Scum

My twelve MT.Net readers know how strongly I feel about freedom of speech. I feel even more strongly about human decency, though.

I totally agree with my brother Jeff. NBC News is scum for airing the tape of that deranged Virginia Tech killer. What America needs to see right now is the stories of the 30+ kids and adults murdered by that scumbag.

Shame on NBC for making a celebrity of that sorry punk, over the vehement protests of these kids’ families.

Back To Blogging

Note to self: when traveling, always take your laptop power supply with you!

I got back last night from a whirlwind business trip to Indianapolis,IN and Columbus, OH. Found out how frustrating it can be not to get online. Even the crummy hotel I stayed in at Columbus had no business center and thus no PC.

Driving from Indianapolis to Columbus, I could not help but detour to Dayton just to see where my heroes Orville and Wilber Wright launched the aircraft revolution (that is, really launched the aircraft revolution, as opposed to what we North Carolinians like to consider). I arrived at their home and shop right before dusk and walked around them, fascinated. Of course, the actual buildings are no longer there after Henry Ford had them carted over to his museum, Greenfield Village. I don’t know what Orville Wright or the city of Dayton were thinking when they allowed that to happen. Might be just as well, as the cops slowly rolling by in an unmarked car and the shifty characters on the streetcorners led me to believe it isn’t just the Wrights’ house that isn’t the same in the old neighborhood. At least as long as the Wrights’ house is at Greenvield Village no one will be smoking crack in it.

The rest of my trip was mostly uneventful. I barely made my flight home (typical) and was too late to say goodnight to the kids. The good news is that this was the last trip on my calendar for the forseesable future.

Where’s The Bee-f?

Snopester Bonnie has searched the Internets today in hopes of finding the source of the alleged Einstein bee quote. Despite poring through all the electronic databases known to man and bee (among them ProQuest, ProQuest Historical, LexisNexis Academic, Factiva, and JSTOR, she tells me), Bonnie has been unable to find any references earlier than the 1994 pamphlet distributed by the UNAF during its 1994 protest in Brussels.

I would tend to take any argument made during a protest with a large grain of salt, as they tend to play more to emotion than reason. My hunch is the quote was made up for the pamphlet to help sell the beekeepers’ story – just like most bogus quotes attributed to Einstein. The pamphlet likely had an expected shelf life of five minutes at most and thus had to make its argument quickly – perhaps with a quote from Dr. Einstein, real or not.

But the absence of proof is not proof. One cannot prove a negative, so the burden falls on whomever created the pamphlet to prove Einstein’s bee quote. Tracking this person down after thirteen years may prove more trouble than its worth, especially since this person likely wrote the pamphlet anonymously and preferred to stay that way. Without the help of some enterprising French sleuths to do the groundwork we may never know for sure.

With only the word of the pamphlet author to go on and no apparent supporting documentation, I’m inclined to conclude this quote is a fabrication.

Happy Day

It was nine years ago today that my wife became my fiance. We’ve been smiling ever since.

Fifty-eight plus more years to go!

Blogger Bothered By Bogus Bee Blurb

The good folks on the Snopes message boards claim to have traced the Einstein bees quote back to a pamphlet that the Union Nationale de l’Apiculture Française wrote a decade ago. Snopester Bonnie cites articles that appeared in The Scotsman in 1994.

I searched The Scotsman’s online archive but articles from 1994 do not appear to be present. I have also searched online archives of American newspapers (some dating back 50 years) and found no mention of the quote. The oldest appearance on the Internet I’ve found of the quote is on a mailing list archived by Ibiblio.

The next stop is to research old issues of The Scotsman and see if they lead anywhere. I’m guessing my local library will not have any archives of a Scottish newspaper, though, so that puts me at a bit of a disadvantage.

Its, uh, hive time we track down this quote!

Einstein Biographer Unaware Of Einstein’s Bee Quote

I just got a response back from Walter Isaacson, the author of the hot-off-the-presses biography of Albert Einstein called Einstein: His Life and Universe. Mr. Isaacson’s opinion:

“Einstein may have said something about bees, but I don’t know about it if he did.”

Things aren’t looking good for the Einstein bee quote, y’all.

On another note, three respected news outlets included the Einstein quote without bothering to check with any Einstein experts on its validity: Der Speigel, The Telegraph, and The Independent. It took me literally five minutes to give Mr. Isaacson a chance to shoot it down. It’s just another case of people not doing their fact checking.

[Update 25 April:] Snopes is now on the case. I’m standing down.

Cleaning Up Raleigh

I’ve ranted about it before here at MT.Net. I’ve written two notes to the N.C. Department of Transportation. Its been two months since I first got so fed up abuot the trash on the western side of the I-440 Beltline that I decided to tell someone about it. The responses I’ve gotten back from NCDOT have been polite and claim to do somethng but little seems to get done. Are the inmate crews too busy that they can’t be bothered to work the roads, in spite of the recent beautiful weather?

Tuesday morning I saw an NCDOT cleanup crew picking up trash just north of the Crabtree exit, yet the mound of trash that irks me the most is still there. The section of median between the Hillsborough Street and Wade Avenue exits looks like a landfill. Trash is wrapped around the guardrail posts and scattered all along the roadside. Each day more of it piles up. This piece of road is one of the most visible in Raleigh: right next to the fairgrounds and the Wade Avenue Extension of I-40. It is a gateway to Raleigh, and its trashed all to hell.

Since its obvious my pleas have fallen on deaf ears, I’ll have the chance to increase my involvement next week as the state DOT kicks off its annual Litter Sweep, a two-week statewide campaign to clean up trash. Citizens like me who are fed up with trash will be given an opportunity to do something about it. NCDOT will provide safety vests, gloves, and trash bags for citizens to use in collecting the tons of trash that line our highways. DOT work crews will then pick up the bags of trash that are produced.

Though it promises to be hard work, I look forward to personally cleaning up this trash. It really, really bothers me that much. My only regret is that volunteers are not allowed to clean the medians, where much of the unsightly trash exists.

If you’re interested in joining me in this effort, see the Litter Sweep lkink or call the Litter Sweep Hotline at 800-331-5864. Together we can clean Raleigh up!

GatherPlace: A Linux-Friendlier Web Conferencing Service

Part of my day job involves doing demos of our product. The tool I have been using is WebEx, mainly out of habit more than any other reason. WebEx, though, has a few faults, such as price and lack of Linux supoprt – a significant drawback for a company like mine with Linux-based products.

A coworker recommended GatherPlace. I tried it out today and am pleased with the results. It is more affordable than other solutions, has support for Windows and Mac presenters, and supports Windows, Mac, and Linux clients through its Java application. Though Linux isn’t supported for the presenter, GatherPlace does allow Linux clients to take control of the presentation, which is the next best thing.

If you’re looking for a web service that gives Linux a little more respect, give GatherPlace a test drive.