3/26    "As Gas Rises, Flying May Be Cheaper Than Driving"
        http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Travel/story?id=1905640&page=1
        It's an article from a year ago, but it's probably only more true now.
        \_ If you are 1 person flying has been cheaper for a long time,
           if you take into account wear and tear on the car.
           \_ It's amazing that now flying is cheaper even for a party of
              three.
              \_ And you get a good upper body workout too.

3/26    "practically everything that our government does, plans, thinks, hears
        and contemplates in the realms of foreign policy is stamped and treated
        as secret -- and then unraveled by that same government, by the
        Congress and by the press in one continuing round of professional and
        social contacts and cooperative and competitive exchanges of
        information."  Quoting from an official affidavit that was part of the
        New York Times Co. v. United States (Pentagon Papers).  Authored by
        Max Frankel, then NYTimes chief Washington correspondent.

3/26    33-year-old senior counsel to AG Gonzales takes the fifth
        http://tinyurl.com/2358nr (washingtonpost.com)
        \- how long before immunity offer? you know the republic is in
           trouble when the president's lawyer's lawyer has a lawyer.--psb
           \_ The AG is not the President's lawyer, more like the countries.
              \- not this AG. i forgot who said this but one reasonable
                 media commentator said somthing along the lines when
                 ALBERTO went from the white house to the DoJ, his office
                 changed but his job didnt. and it's "country's".
        \_ "between 1981 and 2006, only five of 486 U.S. attorneys who
            served in those 25 years have been fired before their
            terms expired, and none were fired for political reasons."
            http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/03/22/attorneys
            \- for the nth time, this case is not about a "statistical"
               argument [beyond the prima facie "firings are very rare".]
               this is because we KNOW the details of each (most) individual
               case. for example nobody is bringing up the SF dood because it
               is well established he was leem. you use statistical args
               when for some reason you cant see inside the process ... like
               say in a venire/population that is 30% black and one DA
               over the last 20 trials has 1% black jury members due to his
               use of peremptories ... which one the one hand, he doesnt
               have to "explain" but on the other hand he cannot throw off
               somebody "only" because of race [BATSON v KY]. or say other
               cases of discrimination where there is no per case paper
               trail ... e.g. men and women are evaluted differently for
               promotion ... and there is no memo saying "grade women
               harder". if there is a statistical argument, it is in the
               classifications of this class of united states attorneies
               [where patrick fitzgerals was given a mediocre grade, others
               were given good grade that changed suddenly etc]

3/26    My car has about 145K miles and so far I've had to do oil change
        every 3K miles. I'm thinking of switching to synthetic because
        I've heard that 10K synthetic oil change is equivalent to a regular
        3K change. I hate having to get an oil change every 3K and if I
        can extend it to 10K it would be worth 2X the $ I pay for. Has
        anyone switched to synthetic yet?
        \_ I am running on synthetic, but not exactly for the reason
           you mentioned. Synthetic allows me to go about 7k miles
           between changes. One way to gauge it is, wipe the level
           check on a piece of paper, and you'll be able to see how
           'dirty' the oil is. With regular, after 3-4k, the paper is
           dirty. With synthetic, after 6k, it's still reasonably
           clear. Synthetic also gives you more lubrication/power when
           your engine has been running for a while, such as on long
           trips.
        \_ I use synthetic because I don't want to bring my car in as often.
           It costs more but not that much more so it's worth it.

3/26    Alberto Gonzalez just keeps on lying.  Now I personally
        think that NO ONE should be surprised that the bush administration
        has been firing US Attorneys for politically motivated
        reasons.  It's just the sort of thing they would do.  Yawn.
        I wonder why Gonzalez gives new and exciting reasons for
        it all happening every day.  His masters should tell him
        to quit talking to the press.

3/26    Gay-wango-tango
        http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1174888546111830.xml&coll=3

3/26    http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/26/news/economy/new_home_sales/index.htm
        Commerce reports new-home sales down 18% Feb 06 - Feb 07, down 4%
        Jan 07 - Feb 07 (economists had forecast +13%).

3/26    Lots of people I love to hate on here:
        http://www.radaronline.com/features/2007/01/betting_on_iraq_1.php
        \_ Amusing, story, but I find it hard to characterize Thomas Friedman
           as pro-Iraq war. -dans
           \_ Erm, how exactly would you characterize him if not "pro-war"?
              He's the preeminent "give it six more months"er.
           \_ You don't think so?  I remember the whole 'invading
              Iraq will be a grand roll of the dice!  Good show!'
              column.
              \_ Yeah, I remember that column two, but didn't exactly read it
                 as a ringing endorsement of going to war.  Could be that I'm
                 not weighting that column as much as the rest of his oeuvre.
                 -dans
                 \_ Revisionist
                    \_ Who me?  How about entitled to my fucking opinion.
                       You're welcome to have your own.  If you want to peg
                       something as revisionist, how about the original
                       article, which states that, "Because conservative
                       pundits generally acted as a well-coordinated bloc,
                       more or less interchangeable, all four of our hawks are
                       moderates or liberals who might have been important
                       opponents of the war..."  So, in effect, the
                       conservative pundits were all pro-war and all wrong,
                       but they don't deserve to be taken to task for their
                       opinions because they were wrong together!  Awesome!
                       -dans
                       \_ Thou dost protest too much
                          \_ #t -dans
           \_ it depends on what the meaning of "pro" is
              (you two obviously have different meanings)
        \_ Don't hate the playa, hate the game.

3/26    This is a good read, though it's a long article,
        how the US has no plans to 'rescue' our Iraqi
        allies when we eventually leave Iraq:
        http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/26/070326fa_fact_packer?printable=true
        \_ Isn't the idea that we leave when they are ready to fully control
           their own country so they don't need rescue?
           \_ Right.  I am opposed to the war, always have been, but I
              completely agree with you.  I really don't think there is
              any way the 3 factions in Iraq will stop bombing each
              other while we are occupying Iraq.  Maybe they'll keep
              bombing each other when we're gone, who knows, but we're
              not helping.  One of the interesting points of the above
              article is that the Iraqis who work with us are not
              well treated by the US, are considered traitors by other
              Iraqis, and will be killed when we leave (and they're getting
              killed right now).  The Bush administration has no plans
              to evacuate them eventually because that would be admitting
              that they made a mistake.  I'm also available to start
              making analogies to the Vietnam and Korean war if you wish.
              Too bad there is not some all powerful figure left like
              Mao to tell people what to do.
                \_ Other Bush admin ideas: it will be a cakewalk, the war
                   will last maybe 6 months, the war will pay for itself, the
                   war will cost MAYBE $60 billion, imminent threat, WMDs,
                   mushroom clouds, we will be welcomed as liberators ...
                   did I miss any?
                   \_ Which has nothing to do with this thread.  If you'd like
                      to stay on topic, feel free.

3/26    This weekend I saw a man collapse right in front of me, and I was
        unable to help him in any way. I could not recognize whether he
        had a heart attack, seizure, stroke, or whatever. The only thing
        I could do was to call 911 and wait 10 min. I feel very very
        helpless and I wish that there was something I could do. Are
        there classes out there that can teach me how to recognize what
        problems people have and how to help them?
        \_ There are numerous first aid, cpr, etc. courses available.  Check
           with your local adult school, community center, community college.
           Maybe local Red Cross chapter?  Good on you for calling EMS quickly.
           \- to OP: ostenisbly a class will cover some of the legal issues,
              but given america is the way it is, you may want to at least
              glance at "good samaritan laws" if you are not at all familar
              with the concept. if the dood is unconscious, in some ways
              that is good ... my parent once had to whack a guy who refused
              to leave his car which was on fire, and i once had to drag
              somebody who was collpased in the middle of a busy street
              away but the person started screaming to be left alone/let go...
              if they decide to go after you for assualt since they havent
              given concent, it can lead to headaches. [althought my episode
              was in france...on the Rue de Rivoli].
              \_ PP is correct, CPR class does cover legal aspect of
                 \_ ^PP^PSB?
                 helping someone.  IIRC, in CA, you do need consent
                 before administering CPR.  If the dude is unconsicous
                 then the person give implicit consent.  Also, you
                 have the option to NOT help him.  However, if you do
                 start CPR, you can not legally stop.  If your CPR
                 cert. is current, then they normally could not sue
                 you.  You may want to check to see if this has changed.
                 Also, in other states, some law require you to admin
                 CPR if you have been trained.  It varies.
        \_ So 10 minutes later when help arrived, what happened?

3/26    Could you add more helpful instructions to /csua/soda-changes.2007.1 to
        tell me how to fix my spamassassin, unless there is something better.
        Also, why no md2mb util?
        \_ nevermind, I'm lame. -op

3/26    I have been sort of teaching myself photo stuff on the go, mainly
        from my camera manual and trial and error, and found this pretty
        helpful (don't remember where it's from):
        http://tinyurl.com/2jxg6p   -John
        \_ WELCOME BACK JOHN. Please post more Eurohumour.    -john #1 fan
           \_ Well, last weekend, I faked a heart attack in Paris to freak
              out some American toursists...actually, I'm traveling around
              S. America for 3 months and haven't really had net, but I'll
              post loads of pictures around May when I return.  -John
              \_ What are you doing in S America? Are you riding a motorcycle
                 across S America? And how much money have you swindled by
                 faking heart attack?                   -john #1 fan