the pod bay door

¦¦ The Friday Five:

1. What was the last song you heard?
Don’t Dream It’s Over, but by Sixpence None The Richer (on the radio)

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
Minority Report, The Rookie

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Rice Krispie square, French bread, Gala apples

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Have friends over for an Outer Limits Pizza Party, jam with Peter, have dim sum at New Tan Tan, attend a Pilates class

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
Geoff, someone in an elevator, Carlos Lange, someone else in Mech Eng, a grad student in mech eng.

¦¦ So it’s come to this: in the USA, you must use caution when wearing a t-shirt that reads: Give Peace A Chance and Peace on Earth. A 60-year old lawyer was arrested in a mall in Albany NY for refusing to remove his t-shirt, featuring the aforemention phrases. His 31-year old son avoided arrest by removing his t-shirt, which read, No War With Iraq and Let Inspections Work. The capper: he bought the t-shirt in a store in the mall. The good news is the mall owner has dropped the charges after protestors entered the mall wearing similar t-shirts, and refused to leave until the charges were dropped; what’s insane is that the charges were ever laid in the first place.

Since Sept 11 2001, free speech is America isn’t as free as it was once perceived to be. I watched Politically Incorrect the first night it was back on the air after the attacks, and heard Bill Maher suggest that the pilots of those planes were not cowards, but that the American military was, for lobbing missles from hundreds of miles away. He was admonished by Ari Fleischer, in what smacked as censorship from the White House.
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The temperature in Edmonton at the moment is -33C. The long range forecast for next Friday is +12C. There is hope.

¦¦ This is so annoying. But if you look closely, notice that the template of symbols changes every time. That has to have something to do with how it works. D’oh!

¦¦ For those interested in the Sept 11 building performance information, two good engineering publications exist, one online. The American Society of Civil Engineers has just published The Pentagon Building Performance Report. The report concludes that original design features, modified by recent upgrades, limited the collapse of the building after the airliner crashed into it. Within the report is a blurry picture taken by a security camera that catches the plane, barely a few feet off the ground, if at all, just before it crashes into the first floor of the Pentagon. Some illustrations from the report are available for viewing.

ASCE was also involved in the World Trade Center building performance study , released in the fall of 2002 by FEMA.
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