Medary.com

Wretchard at the Belmont Club makes a point about the lack of comprehension by the media of what's going on in Iraq:

The news coverage of Iraq frequently fails to convey the cumulative linkage of military events in that country. Operations are often reported in a disconnected fashion, as if some operations officer got up in the morning and asked 'what are we going to attack today?', and then troops rush out to do whatever just occurred to them. Worse, definite types of military operations on both sides, whether car bombing, cordon and search, precision strike, etc. are often described according to some political theme -- 'standing up for freedom', 'deepening quagmire', 'the body bags mount', 'reduced to high altitude bombing' -- and the reader gets no sense of the logic behind the events. Both the US Armed Forces and the enemy are led by experienced professionals schooled in the operational art; and if we can be sure of nothing else, we can be certain that their acts have a specific military intent which often does not correspond to the themes articulated by some talking heads. Whether one is on the Left or the Right, it should be abundantly clear that we are watching the battle for the Syrian border and for the control of the Euphrates and Tigris river lines. No matter whose side you're on, you should know what game you are in.

This article on Slate.com talks about the sloppy journalistic practice of using the word "many" to steer a story in the editorial direction the writer/editor/publisher prefers:

when a reporter pours a whole jug of weasel-words into a piece, as Louise Story does on Page One of today's (Sept. 20) New York Times in "Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood," she needlessly exposes one of the trade's best-kept secrets for all to see. She deserves a week in the stockades. And her editor deserves a month.
. . .
I suspect a Times editor glommed onto the idea while overhearing some *censored*tail party chatter—"Say, did you hear that Sam blew hundreds of thousands of dollars sending his daughter to Yale and now she and her friends say all they want in the future is to get married and stay at home?"—and passed the concept to the writer or her editors and asked them to develop it.

So that's the kind of craft you learn in journalism school? Sounds like fun, let's give it a try . . .

#6: Royals win two, avoid 100th loss again
#5: Firefox 1.07 is out
#4: Librarians gone wild?
#3: Global warming on Mars
#2: Sugar Bowl to Baton Rouge or Atlanta
#1: Rita now Category 4

Mozilla Foundation's browser has released a new version. It better be more stable than 1.06, which is terrible.

Note to Mozilla: Opera is now a free browser, too. If Firefox continues to be flaky, I may have to try out Opera.

Sugar Bowl officials look for alternate sites to play the New Years Day bowl game:

The damaged Superdome, its future uncertain, has hosted the game since 1975. The game began to establish its traditions at old Tulane Stadium in 1935.

Wisconsin librarians have put out a calendar. Sadly (or perhaps not), pictures are hard to come by on the Internet . . .

The five middle-aged library directors and a 32-year-old assistant each put up $200 and posed provocatively, using oversize books to cover what their clothes usually do.

Oh, those naughty, NAUGHTY librarians . . .

The BBC reports on climate change on Mars:

(NASA's) scientists also say that deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near the planet's south pole have shrunk for three summers in a row.

They say this is evidence to suggest climate change is in progress.

Must be those pesky robot rover SUV's we've got up there.

The Kansas City Royals continue to cling to double-digits in losses as they take both ends of a double header from Detroit.

The sweep boosted the Royals to 51-99 with 12 games remaining. They must go 7-5 to avoid setting a franchise record for losses in a season.

"All I can say," manager Buddy Bell said, "is I hope we keep playing the way we're playing right now. Because we played really well tonight."

Latest from the National Hurricane Center:

...SATELLITE SUGGESTS THAT RITA HAS BECOME A CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE...

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE FLORIDA KEYS FROM THE MARQUESAS KEYS WESTWARD TO THE DRY TORTUGAS.

INTERESTS IN THE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF RITA.
. . .
AT 8 AM EDT...1200Z...THE EYE OF HURRICANE RITA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 24.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 85.3 WEST OR ABOUT 195 MILES... WEST OF KEY WEST FLORIDA AND ABOUT 790 MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI TEXAS.

RITA IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 14 MPH AND THIS GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS. THIS MOTION SHOULD BRING THE CENTER OF RITA FARTHER AWAY FROM THE FLORIDA KEYS OVER THE SOUTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO TODAY.

SATELLITE IMAGERY SUGGESTS THAT RITA HAS CONTINUED TO STRENGHTEN AND MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO NEAR 135 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. RITA IS NOW A CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. A NOAA PLANE WILL CHECK THE INTENSITY LATER THIS MORNING. SOME ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS POSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

#6: 97.3 The Planet is no more
#5: College Football: Montana 7, SDSU 0
#4: NFL Week 2
#3: Royals stave off 100th loss
#2: Back to the Moon
#1: Here comes Hurricane Rita