Archive for October, 2002
With all this talk of Saddam Hussein and Iraq and weapons of mass destruction and war and invasion and stuff, have we forgotten about Osama bin Laden? Remember him? The Evil One–guy with a beard, hangs out in caves, etc. Dubya hasn’t mentioned OBL since July 8, and that was only when he was specifically asked if we’d find him. As this article notes, “Bush has not made an unprompted mention of bin Laden’s name since March 8.” Seems to me, and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, that we should be focusing our rhetoric and our military might on capturing the one guy who we know masterminded the murder of 3,000 innocent Americans. Hussein is a bad guy for sure, but c’mon: don’t we have bigger fish to fry right now?
The story about natural blondes becoming extinct within 200 years turns out to be a hoax.
Great Onion this week: “Temp Hides Fun, Fulfilling Life From Rest of Office,” and, best of all, Capt. Ron “Mongoose” Haller declares himself “The ‘Top Gun’ of Commercial Airline Pilots.”
In pressing for an invasion of Iraq–despite protests from virtually all of our allies, the U.N., and much of Congress–is the Bush Administration attempting to implement “Pax Americana”? Is Bush’s coterie trying to achieve world domination? (I guess “Coca-Colonization” hasn’t worked.)
Jakob Nielsen, a renowned Web usability expert, has just published an informative new column: “Email Newsletters Pick Up Where Websites Leave Off.” The most important point he makes is that people have emotional connections to email communications, while Web sites are static and impassive. As Nielsen says, “Newsletters feel personal because they arrive in your inbox; you have an ongoing relationship with them. In contrast, websites are things you glance at when you need to get something done or find the answer to a specific question.”