songs of the doomed

I almost never remember my dreams, but this morning after silencing my "It's time for Metric Differential Geometry!" alarm at at 07:15 (uurgh), I clearly dreamt that easwaran, ankaerith, and I ran into none other than our would-be-president Howard Dean and some of his family on the BART train. We were on the way to or from some soiree, but Mr. Dean sat back in a relaxed fashion on the bench-seats of this limo-like BART car. He seemed in a contemplative state, resigned to losing the presidency, yet all of us were trying to think of what X to put in for "Call me up if you ever need help with X as President."

Back to the real world, CNN is telling me ``Howard Dean to announce today that he will stop campaigning, but will leave his name on ballot, campaign source tells CNN.'' What's that supposed to mean, and how did this happen, anyway? In a sense I blame the media for putting forth the campaign that Mr. Dean would not be 'electable,' that his campaign `peaked too soon.' Neither Kerry nor Edwards inspires me the least bit. My vote will be to Dean or Kucinich. Dean's quitting before his supporters have had a chance to vote.

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CNN also tells me ``Teen finds his picture on missing children's Web site - The teen discovered he was allegedly abducted after finding his childhood picture on a missing children's Web site. - LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Authorities arrested the mother of a 17-year-old boy who saw his picture on a missing children's Web site and discovered that he was allegedly abducted from Canada 14 years ago.'' Ehh?

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I called AT&T Wireless customer service yesterday. A seven-of-nine computer voice answers and it's supposed to answer your queries. You're supposed to ask pointed questions, like "How do I pay my bill?" I demanded, ``I want to speak with a freakn' human being!'' ``I can't do that, Dave,'' was the machine's cool reply.

They've been crank-calling me, lately. My phone rings with an 800 number in the caller ID. I answer it. Heavy static, nothing else (the machine equivalent of heavy breathing?). I Googled for the 800-number involved (wondering whether it was some implicitly-accepted-collect-call-from-the-caribbean type scam) and up came AT&T as the guilty party.

I'm glad about the aquisition of AT&T Wireless by Cingular. Maybe Americans will get the GSM network they deserve — or maybe, perversely, we already have it.

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Something about grad school belongs in this space. For some reason I think I'm most excited about visiting North Carolina. Anyway, instead I will leave you with a poll.

[Poll #250553]

fuzzy science

The Bush administration has distorted scientific fact leading to policy decisions on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry, a group of about 60 scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, said in a statement on Wednesday. The Union of Concerned Scientists, an independent organization, also issued a 37-page report detailing the accusations. The statement and the report both accuse the Bush administration of distorting and suppressing findings that contradict administration policies, stacking panels with like-minded and underqualified scientists with ties to industry, and eliminating some advisory committees altogether. — Wired