Just blogging some of the interesting things I’ve stumbled across the past couple days:
Drew told me to:
From a book called Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson:
Godfrey: “Tortured?”
That didn’t quite work out like I had hoped, but it is still interesting nonetheless.
Today I witnessed an event which completely encapsulates all that is not holy with elections. Namely, holding a huge gala on Northrop to try to buy the MSA vote. I hope they fail. Rumor has it that the Will/Bader campaign spent something like $5000 on the event today. Outrageous. They had free pop, and free t-shirts. Free buttons. Free carnival games. A stand of 10 iBooks to login and vote. Outrageous.
I wish I would have had my camera on me to document the whole thing. At least they’ll have the pleasure of knowing that it was the worst $5000 they ever spent (of their own money).
I cast my vote for Ashley Sierra and Chris Montana, the only democrats in the bunch. Speaking of that, I also voted for pretty much everybody the U-DFL endorsed.
Ann Marie and Kevin came and visited the U this evening. The three of us and Sarah Henning (so that makes four) hung out. Dinner at Village Wok was excellent—I didn’t have much since I had just eaten at Don Pablo’s a couple hours before, but we did manage to finish most of it off. Then we headed back to the U where we watched the oh so horrible Fifth Element. Honestly, I don’t remember it being that bad.
Annie and I got a time to talk, which was really nice (thanks Sarah!). Overall, I haven’t had such a good evening in a long time.
Update: Leave it to me to neglect the most important news of the evening… Annie and I are back together :).
The memo has been released.
Declassified and Approved for Release, 10 April 2004
Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in USClandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and “bring the fighting to America.”
After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a [CENSORED] service.
An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an [CENSORED] service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative’s access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.
The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Laden’s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.
Ressam says Bin Laden was aware of the Los Angeles operation.
Although Bin Laden has not succeeded, his attacks against the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepared operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.
Al-Qa’ida members — including some who are US citizens — have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa’ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [CENSORED] service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Shaykh” ‘Umar’ Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patters of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.
For the President Only
6 August 2001
Declassified and Approved for Release, 10 April 2004??Via: eclecticism??
Well, I ran into this video today that presents a neat way to fold shirts. I’ve got no idea if a lot of people fold shirts this way—as I’ve never had to fold more than a half-dozen shirts at a time in my life.
Needless to say, it’s pretty slick and easy to learn—although the directions are in Japanese.
Update: If needed, a local mirror is here.
Kinja is a weblog portal, collecting news and commentary from some of the best sites on the web. Visitors can browse items on topics, everything from food to sex. Or they can create a convenient personal digest, to track their favorite writers.
??Via: Kinja??
Of course, I signed and included all of the blogs I read of people I don’t know. So therefore don’t expect your listings to show up if I know you. My Kinja page does, however, give you a glimpse into other people’s blogs/news sites I find interesting.
Well, I’ve gone and done it… registering for Fall ’04 that is.
Here’s the official breakdown:
All in all, it’ll be 13 academic credits & 3 “fun” credits, making this my easiest semester at the U yet.
In case you were wondering how it looks time-wise, he’s a screenshot from iCal:
I came across this picture while reading some of the blogs I’m subscribed to. It’s pretty touching if you ask me, a nice tribute to a president who has managed to do so much wrong in so little time.
“Below is a … mosaic composed of the photos of the American service men and women who have died in Iraq. No photograph is used more than three times.”
??Via: American Leftist??
My main project right now is the website.
Brad Froehle 