Barring a last-minute delay, Volkswagen of America will announce plans to move its headquarters to the Washington, D.C. suburbs, during a news conference several well-placed VW sources tell TheCarConnection.com will be held on Thursday.

[ Volkswagen Moving to D.C. Area - The Car Connection ]

Hot!

You are part of the problem. Apparently some news sources don't get it. When covering horrific acts of extremist fringe groups most if not all news outlets will not discuss or publish the goals of those groups, and for a good reason, to help them get their message out, or lend credence to their movement, would be a crime by assisting those who perpetrated the horrible acts. However US news outlets don't seem to understand that is exactly what the do when covering stories like the recent bombing in Hyderabad, India.

First a little background of the city:

Hyderabad is a unique cosmopolitan city and home to people practicing Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism. Hyderabadis have developed their own distinctive culture, which is a mixture of ancient Hindu traditions of Telugu people and the centuries old Islamic Culture.

...

The cities population is estimated at 3.6 million or more in 2006 while the population of the greater metropolitan area is estimated at over 6.1 million. Religiously and culturally, the city is united with Christians, Hindus and Muslims. The main languages spoken are Telugu, Hindi,Tamil,Urdu and Deccani.

[ Wikipedia ]

Basically Hyderabad is a true success story of a people of different cultures and religions working together for the common good, just the sort of thing that extremists who pretend to have an Islamic bent, just can't stand. How to deal with this "blemish" in their rhetoric of the "two worlds"? Simple, drive a wedge between the Muslims and their neighbors with a terror act. If people die, and it's determined that the "Muslims" did it, the other communities will trust them less and withdrawal from cross-cultural and cross-religious engagements where they can.

So then, what are the voices of reason to do to fight this? Don't highlight the cause of these extremists by labeling this a "Muslim" or "Islamic" act. If we treat these vile extremists as just that, and make sure to use labels that aren't divisive, we hopefully act against their desires and help to invalidate their actions, and at least we don't assist them with their evil intentions. So who can we rely on to just not "get it"?

But, you may say, some of these sources are just quoting Indian officials who are saying that themselves. It's a tricky game these militant extremists play and just because the Indian government has fallen for their trap, doesn't mean news organizations should follow. Does this act make any more sense to anyone by using the self proclaimed label of the organization responsible? And certainly does this act represent, in anyone's mind, what any self-respecting, honest, Muslim from the majority of Muslims ever consider acceptable behavior? This linkage of the words "Muslim" and "Islam" to acts like this is the goal of these organizations. They want you to believe that this is what Islam stands for so that you will distance yourself from the Muslims of the world. Then they will have a much easier time to recruit additional followers and create a larger and larger rift between the decent people of the world, and we're helping them.

And before you jump all over me for this rant, ask yourself why a story like this one on CNN.com doesn't refer to these bombers as "Christian Terrorists".

Note: my survey was very unscientific I simply picked the first story about the bombings in India that I found on each site. Oh, and I was very surprised by the Washington Post and Reuters.

Last night was the first of a three part series on CNN by Cristiane Amanpour about modern warrior traditions in the 3 major Abrahamic faiths of our day. What does she think she knows? (You may ask):

"My experience has been steeped in all the faiths," says Amanpour. "My mother's a Catholic -- I've been to Catholic schools where we said prayers all the time. My father's a Muslim, I grew up in Iran -- I suppose my pivotal turning point in my adult life was the Iranian revolution. And my husband's Jewish.

[ Miami Herald ]

They've split up the 6 hours into three 2 hour shows, one for each faith: first Jewish, then Muslim, then Christian. I have to say that so far I guess it seems fair, there is little praise or condemnation in the piece, it's mostly just the facts portrayed, and by the people involved when possible. No suprises for me in the first 2 hours, it was all information I already was aware of. I don't expect to learn much on tonight's show either, but tomorrow when we get to Christians I hope to learn a bit more about non-Catholic traditions that I'm none-too-familliar with. 

CNN chose their language for the first piece quite well, and left it up to the viewer to reflect on how they feel about the revelations within it. If this continues through the next two nights then perhaps this series will educate and expand the conversation about how all peoples can turn their back on hate and violence and share this little rock we live on.

Muslims are taking over San Diego!

Here's what I'm confused about:

1. 7^th and 8^th grade in an elementary school? (Seems unlikely)
2. Is it a "period" an "hour" or "15 minutes"? Islamic prayer generally takes about 5 minutes, 1 hour seems a bit over the top.
3. The teacher claims "Ms. -" lead the prayer, but that isn't consistent with Islamic tradition, and she left before anything even began.
4. The American flag was "rolled up"? Why the would any Muslim do that?
5. Why is closing the blinds without direction so unnerving? If you do anything on a daily basis, wouldn't kids just do it?
6. Has anyone heard of any Muslim complaining about Catholics "doing" rosaries ever?
7. Assimilations? How is changing your religious practices "assimilation"? I wasn't aware that being American was a religion.
8. Doesn't everyone understand yet that Arab does not equal Muslim? And they can't remotely be interchanged?

I also see that the 2006 enrollment was 290 and they state in the story that there is "100 Muslim students" or more than 1/3 of the school, and according to their ethnic breakdown it seems impossible that those 100 Muslim students were "Arabic".

When did people stop learning the details before freaking out? I remember a day when it was considered good practice to check sources and site references, and I long for that day to return.

Update: Apparently in September a nearby "charter" school was merged with Carver and that charter school had an Arabic immersion program. Apparently it happened days before the school opened, and they had no chance to update the curriculum or syllabus. And apparently it is a predominately Somali (not Arab) student population [ San Diego Union-Tribune ]. Apparently the class is all female as well, so my points 1, 2, and 3 above are all cleared up and now make sense. It also seems that the student population has grown to 415 [ Union-Tribune ] due to this merger so we're talking about 1/4 of the school being Muslim.

Update: On the Religion Clause website there are a few comments that I find hard to believe, are there really places in this country where the students are forbidden to say "God" or "Jesus" or carry a bible? In my high-school in an English class we studied the language used in the bible by using bibles that the school owns. I can't imagine that my schooling experience was that radically different (though I have just moved back into Montgomery Country because of the excellent school system). I would recommend anyone who has their child arrested for carrying a bible to school move and move quickly.

My wife's country and my motherland are about as far apart in the world as you can get. One never sees news stories involving the Irish in Indonesia, or Indonesians in Ireland. Or do they?

An Irish company is poised to turn Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam's Sabang port into one of Asia's largest and most competitive container ports. Dublin Port is investing in the facility, which is strategically located on Weh Island at the mouth of the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest waterways.

[ The Jakarta Post - Dublin Port to turn Sabang into one of Asia's largest ports ]

Well what do you know?

Try again:

About 2,500 experts were in Prague for the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) general assembly. Astronomers rejected a proposal that would have retained Pluto as a planet and brought three other objects into the cosmic club.

[ BBC NEWS | Special Reports | Pluto loses status as a planet ]

Perhaps we will finally have peace in the middle east, I'm sure this is what the brouhaha has been all about.

And in this case DC gets to keep the best:

The man named two weeks ago to be the new editor in chief of the Village Voice has announced he will not take the position.

Wemple said he will remain in his current job as editor of Washington City Paper, a position he has held since January 2002.

[ Wemple Decides Against Voice Editor Job ]

I had the fortune to work with Erik in the past, and I can say that the City Paper has one of the finest editors that it could ever hope for. I certainly hope that the WCP doesn't take this serendipity for granted, and works on making Erik pleased with his choice.

Props to Tom for noticing the article and asking, "Is that THE Erik Wemple" or something like that...

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia's rumbling Mount Merapi is spewing volcanic ash, magma has fully covered its crater, and a powerful eruption could come any day, a scientist said Thursday.

[ Indonesian Volcano Could Erupt Any Day - Yahoo! News ]

You'd think that this is near Jakarta, since that's what the byline says, but the Western press seems to only have offices in Jakarta, so any Indonesian news says that.

Then where is Mount Merapi (Gunung Merapi to the locals)? The nearest large city is Yogyakarta, and it's right in central Java, Jakarta is over 300 miles to the east of Mount Merapi, and not in much danger. Makassar (née Ujung Pandang), the city from which my wife hails, is over 800 miles NNE of Mount Merapi.

Does this mean that I don't appreciate this tip? No, it means that I get frustrated with the news feeds that Yahoo and other websites carry, if they leave out this information for places I know something about, what happen when the story is about some place I know nothing about, and I am without any access to the *Internet?

And, while I'm on the subject, why do I only hear about natural disasters in that part of the world?

* Yes, I realize that is impossible.

Welcome home STS-114.

Space Shuttle Discovery touched down this morning at Edwards Air Force Base in California to successfully conclude NASA's Return to Flight Mission. STS-114 was the first Shuttle mission to fly since the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia and the STS-107 crew on Feb. 1, 2003.

[NASA - Return to Flight ]

Excellent.

NPR news and information is available through RSS feeds, which use a technology called XML to deliver headlines and summaries to your desktop. Many NPR Member stations also provide local and regional RSS feeds of their own.

[ NPR : RSS Feeds ]

If only Nintendo would get RSS feeds, I'd be pretty much set.

Because starting Jan. 17th, we're running ourselves out of business:

America Online, which earlier this year stopped signing up new broadband customers, is telling existing broadband subscribers in nine Southern states that they must find a new broadband carrier by Jan. 17.

[ Yahoo! News - AOL Tells Customers to Find New Carrier ]

Or am I missing something here, like people craving slow, hard to deal with, Internet connections that they pay too much for?

YES!

Conan O'Brien will take over from Jay Leno as host of the "Tonight" show.

[ Yahoo! News ]

Who's taking over for Conan? I am suspecting Carrot Top.

Hopefully NBC will follow up with an exact date so I can make my big countdown clock to the day I won't have to see Leno on TV anymore.

Oh, and Kudos to you Conan! You deserve it, man! Erin go bragh!

Props to Dari

I expect some big issues tomorrow.

While recognizing the security benefits of Service Pack 2, some organizations have asked that we provide them the ability to temporarily disable delivery of this update via AU and WU. These organizations have populations of PCs which are enabled to receive all critical security updates via AU. Since Service Pack 2 will start to be delivered to Windows XP Home Edition PCs on August 18 and to Windows XP Professional Edition starting on August 25, these customers have asked for the ability to temporarily block the delivery of Service Pack 2 in order to provide additional time for validation and testing of the update.

[ Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Update ]

I've been the guinea pig for my company, and so far it's been smooth sailing. I've reviewed all critical systems and used my computer for regular business and only run in to a few small issues. One security product required an upgrade (which had been available anyway) and CRM needed me to white-list it. I understand that I'll have to tweak security settings if I ever try to setup debugging via DCOM in VisualStudio, but I doubt I'll be doing that so no worries.

Personally, I can't wait until everyone is on SP2, I think Microsoft has done some good work, and it will stop much of the viral shenanigans that have been going on. And the naysayers? Whiners, in my opinion. I've seen nothing insurmountable, and (as far as I can tell) all issues are from the added security, and the added security is what everyone has been begging for, so when you get what you ask for, don't whine about it?

Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the "I" in internet. At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net.

[ Wired News: It's Just the 'internet' Now ]

And here's the problem, the title of this piece is wrong. It should be “It's Just 'internet' Now”. later in the article it clearly states:

Web will continue to be capitalized when part of the more official entity, World Wide Web.

And I can only assume that this goes for “internet” and “net” as well. Which means the 'i' in “The Internet” is still capitalized, as would be the 'n' in “The Net” though that's just slang so Wired News would likely not capitalize it. This editorial has caught a good deal of flack, and I think undeservedly so. Sure, at first I was ready to go off just as I always do when it comes to this stupid capitalization thing, but I think that Wired has not swung the pendulum way to the other side, but in fact has just corrected the mistake they've been making.

My only remaining question is, does Wired know that “the Internet” is just one thing, and it's name is “Internet” and therefore, by their own new rule, should be capitalized?

Of course, in the remote possibility that Wired still doesn't understand how to capitalize, join me on the Virtual Quill bandwagon and embrace the chaos of English spelling and grammar (unlike some)!

Update: What about “the matrix”?

May she rest in peace.

Julia Child, whose warbling, encouraging voice and able hands brought the intricacies of French cuisine to American home cooks through her television series and books, died in her sleep three days before what would have been her 92nd birthday.

[ CNN ]

Julia Child shared the passions, philosophies, and products of this kitchen in her home, with family, friends, colleagues, and fans for 45 years. Now she is sharing the kitchen itself with millions, having donated it to the National Museum of American History in 2001.

[ Smithsonian Institute ]

Bon Appetit, Julia.

Perhaps not your typical story about the hometown boy, but he's not your typical hometown boy....

In what could be the biggest talent deal in basic-cable history, comedian Dave Chappelle has re-upped with Comedy Central for two more seasons of Chappelle's Show and will get a hefty cut of its DVD sales.

[ Yahoo! News - Chappelle: Laughing all the way to the bank ]

And no, I don't mean boy like that, you horrible, horrible people.

Way to go Dave! You da man!

Actress Mary-Kate Olsen, left, 18, who is recovering from treatment for an eating-disorder, and her sister Ashley Olsen, 18, touch their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in this April 29, 2004...

[ Yahoo! News - Entertainment Photos - AP ]

What I wonder is if they will become some sort of eating disorder/twins study. Why one twin would have an eating disorder and the other wouldn't. Presumably they have had as similar genetic background and upbringing as any two people can.

A British street artist known as Moose creates graffiti by cleaning dirt from sidewalks and tunnels -- sometimes for money when the images are used as advertising. But some authorities call it vandalism.

[ NPR ]

Perhaps they should pass a law making that much filth and grime a crime. And here I thought that England had cleaned since the industrial revolution...

And it is rather snazzy. Now it has “buddy icons”, avatars, integrated music, smaller footprint, “skinable” interface, and more! What are you waiting for, upgrade now!

Yahoo! Messenger is a free instant messaging service that you can use to communicate with other people who also use Yahoo! Messenger. You can see which of your friends are online and communicate with them in real time. Yahoo! Messenger also has great features for:

Entertainment: Listen to music from LAUNCHcast on your computer, and play Yahoo! Games against your friends.

Personalization: There are many different ways to add color and graphics to your conversations and change the look of the program.

Productivity: You can organize all of your contact information (email addresses, phone numbers and more) in Yahoo! Messenger, search the web directly from the program and decide who can see that you are online.

Communication: You can have conversations with several people at the same time, send files of any size over the Internet and use voice and video.

[ Yahoo! Help - Platform/Version ]

Microsoft has been readying its update to its flagship Windows XP operating system -- Windows XP Service Pack 2 (XP SP2) -- for some time now. At the moment, it is in Release Candidate 1 (RC1) status, which means the product has reached a certain level of stability and is more or less feature-complete. In this article, I'll walk you through some of the features you can expect to see in XP SP2 when it is finally released in the second half of this year.

[ WindowsDevCenter.com: An Inside Look at XP SP2 [May. 04, 2004] ]

The WiFi settings look much, much better. The Automatic Updates seem much easier to find. The fact that Windows knows if Virus protection is installed seems like a long time coming. All-in-all I can't wait to get my systems upgraded...

And I feel the need to pass it along:

Come celebrate spring with scrumptious strawberry treats at Clyde’s two-day Strawberry Festival on May 7 and May 8 at Reston Town Center Pavilion. It will be like Clyde’s Oktoberfest, with a fresh spring twist! The festivities will include live bluegrass and country music, delicious Clyde’s food, hands-on daytime activities for kids, live animal shows, and lots of fun for all ages.

[ Clyde's Restaurant Group ]

I don't know why, but I love the “Clyde's Group” and strawberries too. Looks like fun for the NOVA crowd...

...starting July 1, Virginia cellular phone users can sign up to block unwanted marketing calls through the national Do Not Call Registry. The registration is good for five years.

[ Yahoo! News ]

Of course, since it's my only phone, I've already done that. Also of note:

Under the law, telemarketers must also transmit caller-identification information

Which should mean no more “Unknown” callers on my phone. Now wouldn't that just be great.

Since 1999, Ireland has received almost 50,000 asylum applications. The figure was highest in 2002, when 11,634 people claimed asylum, but it fell the following year, to 7,900.

But in a country of about four million people, a quick glance through the editorial or letters pages of the Irish Times shows just what powerful social and political issues asylum and immigration represent.

[ BBC NEWS | Europe ]

I believe that at the hight of its population, Ireland had 8 million people, I'd expect that for the time being there should be plenty of room for some immigrants. Perhaps they should just inact a requirement that immigrants learn Irish in order to secure permanent residence...

Of course, since I live in America, decendant of Irish immigrants, I might be more sympathetic to the cause...

Oh, and Erin Go Bragh!

My Mom has been hard at work for a couple years now, and this is the result:

The drug works by starving the tumour of oxygen and nutrients The US government has approved a drug that halts the growth of tumours by cutting off their blood supply.

Avastin has been shown to prolong the lives of those with advanced bowel cancer.

[ BBC NEWS | Health ]

Woo hoo!

Sure she had help, but she's the only one on this project that I know.

Way to go Mom! Way to go Avastin team! Way to go Genentech!

Somehow I completely missed this one:

DHL announced today it has reached a major milestone in the integration of DHL and Airborne Express. After only six months, both companies have integrated the majority of their ground and courier networks, and are now launching several new programs for customers. Shipping and logistics customers will benefit from the combination of an expanded domestic portfolio, and a powerful global network.

[ DHL ]

I usually notice news about shipping companies, mostly due to my disdain for UPS, but this one completely slipped my radar. I guess that's what happens when you get a majority of your news from the Beeb.

I have no idea why, but:

Freebyte Zip is a reliable, powerful and freeware zip/unzip program with full Windows user-interface. You can zip and unzip files, create zip archives, password protect files, view sort and encrypt zip file contents, and also make self.extracting archives.

[ Freebyte Zip ]

This includes commercial uses, and it can be run from a command line (and closes when it's done).

More details about today's new worm.

An e-mail worm that looks like a normal error message but actually contains a malicious program continued to snarl computers around the world on Tuesday.

MessageLabs Inc., which scans e-mail for viruses, said 1 in every 12 messages contained the worm, called "Mydoom" or "Novarg." Security experts described it as the largest virus-like outbreak in months, one made more problematic by its timing.

[ Yahoo! News ]

I received 10 or 15 of these last night, mostly to an email address that is only listed inside of HTML comments on a website that I built years ago. I've now had to step up my email management techniques to auto-junk all emails with attachments of certain types (based on their extensions), specifically .exe, .vbs, .com, .scr, and .shs. I certainly hope that some of the new email verification efforts led by Yahoo! or AOL (like SPF or Domain Keys) produce something that will stem the tide of unwanted emails, both spam and viruses.

Muslims are converging on Mecca for the hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage that has been plagued by fires, stampedes and occasional riots. The risks are even greater this year, with Saudi authorities also worried about diseases and terrorism.

[Yahoo! News - Most Viewed ]

God willing it will go off without a hitch. I can attest to the amazing planning ability of the Saudi branch of the government that is in charge of Hajj and Umrah (the 2 types of pilgrimages). When I was in Saudi (just for the lesser pilgrimage, Umrah) I couldn't believe how many people were involved, yet how smoothly all operations went. The populations of Medina and Mecca aren't very large (891,000 and 1,335,000 for metro areas respectively according to libraryspot) but are able to host populations 5-10 times that size during Ramadan and Hajj.

Koosh Moose found the name of a new virus rather confusing.

Since emerging on Sunday, "Bagle" has been something of a mystery. Computer security experts first called it "Beagle" after pulling the reference from a line of code found in the malicious program.

Later, it was given the name "Bagle," a misspelled version of the doughnut-shaped roll. To the virus-weary public, warnings about a malicious bagel drew more questions than normal.

[ Yahoo! News ]

And the story never ends up explaining why McAfee or Sophos called it Bagle. Makes me glad that I use Symantec aka Norton, since they still call it Beagle.

Not really a surprise, but it is good that all went as planned:

In a move that surprised no one, 14-year-old soccer phenom Freddy Adu was selected by D.C. United as the first pick in Friday's Major League Soccer draft.

[ Yahoo! News ]

This is likely to be the motivation that will actually get me to a United game.

People who tank up on coffee may reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

[ Yahoo! News ]

Of course they do want to make it clear that

the researchers warn their study "cannot prove a cause-effect relationship" between caffeine consumption and a lower risk of diabetes. And, they add, "it is premature to recommend increased coffee drinking as a means to prevent type 2 diabetes."

And they also seem to have a bit of distain for coffee drinkers, making wild accusations like:

People who drink lots of coffee often have other unhealthy habits, including smoking, drinking alcohol and leading a sedentary lifestyle.

So I exepct to increase my coffee habit, in order to stave off type 2 diabetes, and continue my sedentary lifestyle, since I don't drink or smoke, and have no plans of starting either.

A strong earthquake occurred at 19:15:56 (UTC) on Monday, December 22, 2003. The magnitude 6.5 event has been located in CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. The hypocentral depth was estimated to be 8 km ( 5 miles).

[USGS]

If you don't want to do the math, that's 11:15:56 AM PST.

park rangers in San Simeon have ordered evacuation of the Hearst Castle

[CNN]

In case you live under a rock, or only get news from my site:

Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is held by US forces after being captured in a cellar in his hometown Tikrit.

[BBC News | World | UK Edition ]