SARS and dumb reporters

While doing some reading on SARS, I noticed this little blurb,

Hong Kong is the location of the second-largest outbreak of the disease, after China, but ahead of Canada, where Health Canada on Sunday reported 98 probable or suspected cases.

Just a couple of things, 1.) they are comparing a city to an entire country (10 million vs 1 billion); but more importantly, 2.) in case no one noticed, Hong Kong has been part of China for nearly 6 years now.

Saw this today, and it gave me a chuckle.

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is white, the best golfer is black, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war."

Ends and Means

I can't help but notice not only myself, but everyone else around me, talking more and more about this war. How can we not when we are surrounded by it 24/7. I've heard some convincing arguments from both sides (except from President Bush, who relied on other people to do the convincing for him).

In the end, it really boils down to, does the end justify the means. Does a liberated Iraq justify a couple thousand civilian casualties?

There is just one thing that bothers me, however. This notion of a liberated, democratic Iraq (and who knows, maybe even the whole middle east) is really a best-case scenario. It is very difficult to predict what will actually happen after the fighting between coalition forces and Saddam's army has ceased. Will the US stay in Iraq with a temporary military government (some Shiite groups have spoken against US rule post-Saddam)? Will they set up a dummy government (as per Afghanistan) and let them be? Or will they allow the UN to step in? What will they do about the different factions inside Iraq? These are all important unanswered questions.

So the ends (liberated Iraq) justifies the means (casualties).

Well, here's another ends justifies the means.

What if the whole middle east goes into turmoil after this? What if Turkey starts fighting the Kurds in northern Iraq, and India bombs Pakistan to preempt potential threats? What if more missiles accidently end up in Iran, and the Iranian government stirs up conflict? What if North Korea takes the opportunity of all the US forces being centred around the Persian Gulf, and launches an attack on South Korea? What if the scar of the current international division cannot be healed, and trade embargoes/tarriffs once again rule everyone's borders, and the international economy slumps to another recession as a result? What if the democratization of Iraq is not as clear-cut as we thought?

Doesn't the few million suffering under Saddam (means) seem justified by the avoidance of WWIII and a global economic crisis (ends)?

Sure those are a lot of what-if's, and what I've presented here is really a worst-case scenario. But the biggest what-if over Iraq's future is anything but clear.

Anagrams

This is too funny. Bush anagrams.

President George W. Bush =
This bugger needs power.

There are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for. (Albert Camus) =
Er, oil?... Is 'Great barrels of crude oil' a term unknown to that Frenchy? (G.W. Bush)

from www.anagrammy.com/

More:

Matt Goyer = A Germy Tot
Natalie Gordon = To An Idle Groan
Ben Redman = Bed Manner
Kevin Regan = Never A King
mfli = film

Too Bad

Waterloo scores a disappointing tie for 21 at the ACM programming contest.

But in all seriousness, good job on the effort. I know I couldn't have done half as well, given the tough competition.

Hmm ...

A division of Halliburton gets a contract to work in Iraq.
Hmm ...
Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton until 2000.
Hmm ...
Dick Cheney is Vice President of the United States.
Hmm ...
The United States is at war with Iraq.
Hmm ...

Balls

Michael Moore has balls. He's the only one who actually made a real stand (for or against) on the war at the Oscars, rather than the lame "I hope it ends soon" speeches by some of the other winners/presenters.

Of course everyone wants it to end soon. No one wants a war to drag on. But to be able to criticize (or root for, for that matter) the president on national television takes some guts. I'm surprised that he was able to get all the nominees up on stage with him, and kind of appalled that more were booing than cheering him. At no time did he chastise the troops, nor did he theorize some government conspiracy. His beef was with the president, and he should be able to voice it.

It would have been just as true had he been pro-Bush.

I wonder if all the troops agree with their president. I know that they are supposed to be impartial and trust the government. But it would really suck to believe that you are fighting and might die in vain.

Segway Watch

I saw yet another Segway today on the way to lunch. This time, it was the meter-maid (although it was a he, so what would that make him? The meter-butler?). He had two containers on either side for the coins, and was very efficient. The height of the Segway also made it the most ergonomic position for him to insert his keys into the meter and collect the money.

I wanted to try it, but when I yelled it out, he was already down the street.

WAR

So I'm in a country that's currently at war with another country that's thousands of miles away.

Nothing has really changed, except the continual news updates that are interrupting normal television programming. The constant alerts of orange don't scare anyone anymore. It's sort of like the boy that cried wolf, except the boy is the government, and the wolf is invisible.

I wonder what the general concensus would be if Iraq were not half way around the world, but next door, where even his conventional weapons can still reach American shores. Then would they be still be the coalition of the willing? Distance detracts from the emotional effects of war.

Sleep

I've been sleeping for at least 9 hours a day, and haven't gotten to work before 9:30 since I've been back.

Vegas has really done me in.

Las Vegas Recap

Two words pretty much sum up the whole weekend -- In Excess.

Everything in Vegas is so big, flashy and overdone, to the point that it's all fake, and you like it that way.

We arrived in Vegas, only to stand in a 300 person line to wait for taxis at the airport. Our cab had a nice message to bring, and soon we were in our rooms with tallboys getting ready to go out.

Some of the group went clubbing, others went to strip clubs (they didn't tell me they were going, had I known ...), but I, I went gambling. Three hours later, at 4 in the morning, I stumbled back to the hotel room, a little short on change, only to find it empty. The boys finally came in at 6 am. Little did we know, it would be like this for the rest of the weekend.

The morning came and went. When we finally got out of bed, it was early afternoon, and we decided to go for a little dip. We trudged through the hotel lobby bare footed and chilled in the pool. Terry, whose mission was to be drunk the entire weekend fulfilled his promise by starting off the day with a rather large alcoholic drink.

After another afternoon of losing money, we lusted after a good seafood buffet.

We heard that the Bellagio (the only 5 start hotel in town) also (interestingly) had the best seafood buffet. Cab. Zoom. Inside. Through the casino (in which the tables were showing $100, $250 and $500 minimum bets), we found the $40 buffet, along with a lineup that wrapped around two corners. Fearing that we would miss the 11 o'clock deadline, we proceeded to Caesar's Palace, where we found a $20 buffet with unlimited champagne. This is where the fun begins.

After plates upon plates of crab legs and glasses upon glasses of champagne, we chowed down some strawberries and left with champagne glasses in hand (oh, and tipping our waiter $50 since we loved that guy).

Did I mention that we drank a lot of champagne?

The rest of the evening is a little hazy in my memory. We went to the club RA in our hotel where we danced with some girls, I almost got into a fight with some guy because I got pushed into his girl, and I proceeded to get lipstick on my shirt. I did some drunken gambling in the casino, and went to bed, again, around the wee hours of morning.

More gambling.

Some people left Sunday night. I walked up and down the entire strip, watched the fountain show, watched some people watching the fountain show, and just took a bunch of pictures.

More gambling.

It's weird to walk out of the casino, thinking it's late at night, and seeing sunlight outside. You lose total perception of time.

So you'd think here is where my Vegas story ends, after losing a lot of money, and having very little sleep. But like every good reality show, there's a twist at the end.

We are getting ready to leave the hotel for the airport, and were getting our luggage from the bell desk. I had one last dollar coin in my pocket, and I told the group that I'm going to put it in a slot machine, and that'll be the end of my trip.

I walk into the casino, coin in hand. All the slots near the outside are 5 and 25 cent machines. I had to walk in deep to find a dollar slot machine. Finally, I spot one, all alone, just calling my name. Slide in the coin, pull the lever. Double Double 7. There was a slight pause. I thought I had nothing (having had bad luck with slot machines in the past couple of days), and was getting up to leave. Then the numbers start rolling. Past 10, 50, 100, 200, and stops at 320. The machine kept on jamming as it spat out the coins, and I, hands shaking, had to wait for a clerk to come and clear it out. But my last dollar netted me $320.

I was volunteered to pay for the cab ride to the airport.

(all pictures)

Back safely from Vegas. Detailed recollection and pictures to follow.

Must get some sleep now.

My favourite CS prof strikes again.

Date: 04 Feb 2003 13:55:21 -0500
From: Prabhakar Ragde
Newsgroups: uw.general
Subject: Re: another conundrum

gvcormac@speedy.uwaterloo.ca (Gordon Cormack) writes:

> Coke is brown.

I thought coke was white. Someone's been cutting yours. --PR

We went to a Sonic's game tonight. They were playing the Mavericks, so we brought a Canadian flag, and waved it around when Nash scored.

The game was very close throughout the quarters, but ultimately the Sonics won. Their recent trade has really paid off.

Bezos escapes death. Amazon.com still alive.

I saw a Segway today. The first one I saw in real person.

At first, all I noticed was a man's head moving smoothly behind a bunch of parked cars, and I thought he was on one of those kid scooters. Then I saw that he was riding on a Segway, which is really a glorified scooter for someone with too much money.

I want one.

Went skiing again today. I think it might be time to stop since the cost is becoming prohibitive. It's something only rich people and their kids do.

On the other hand, does anyone hate the TRUTH commercials (let's counter the misrepresentation of the tobacco companies with our own misrepresentations) as much as I do? Almost as much as I hate the Apple switch commercials.

And are the Yo/Yao (Visa Cheque), the Dude (Ford Focus), and the Node (Heineken) commercials just rip offs of the original, wasssup?

Does anyone know how to make my page look the same in Netscape as it does in IE? I want the middle column to be 600 px, and the right most column to extend indefinitely, but can't seem to figure it out in Netscape. The problem is that, I think, there's no text in the right column, so Netscape just sort of "collapse" it into nothingness. It's the black hole of td's.

Damn Netscape, they can't even get tables right.

This is pretty damn cool. It shows what the world might look like to a colour blind person (read: Matt).

Got in a little late today, due to adverse effects of alcohol on a weekday. Good thing my whole team is away on a "summit".

Spring schedule:
CS 370 - Numerical Computation
CS 452 - Real-Time Programming
CO 454 - Scheduling
SPCOM 223 - Public Speaking

The Life of David Gale is one of the better movies I have seen in a while. The question of how far you would go to prove a point, and the concept of martyrdom that actually relates to the American people is intertwined with a murder mystery set three days prior to a death row prisoner's execution.

The setting of the movie (in Texas), I thought, is also very fitting. There is a definite parallel with the last Texan governor and the one in the movie; between the black and white distinctions of good and evil, the deeply religious political platform, and the belief that death is a useful deterrent.

Which segues into an interesting point. Is death really a deterrent? Or is it just the thought of punishment that acts as a deterrent? I would argue that the death sentence probably does not deter a criminal from acting out the crimes that are deserving of a death sentence (the irony of that sentence), but it does stop them from doing it again. I believe that the death sentence is carried forward from the old vigilante days where it was an eye for an eye, and people didn't want to front the cost of keeping some locked up for the rest of their lives.

So from my point of view, there are both pro's and con's of capital punishment. It probably does not deter someone from committing some horrible act (con), but once convicted, it will prevent him/her from committing future horrible acts (pro). The cost of performing a death sentence is well less than the cost of keeping someone in jail for 30 years (socially responsible but not socially acceptable?). But the biggest con, of course, is the possibility of wrong convictions. But can there be an acceptable ratio? 1 in 10? 1 in 100? or 1000? Is there one?

In other news, I went skiing again yesterday. Got and broke a huge blister on my foot, and it hurts, a lot. But the skiing was good. It started snowing in the afternoon, and the clouds were so low that I was literally skiing in it. Sometimes it was to the point where you could only see one or two skiers ahead of you. And I'm pretty sure I went on a black again, by accident.