A Marine CH-53 Sea Stallion crashed in the western deserts of Iraq today killing 31 Marines. It’s a very saddening story and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of their families. What I do not understand is people thinking that this was something that was “caused” by the war in Iraq, because it wasn’t. There have been multiple incidents in the U.S. (and other foreign military bases) where planes, helicopters, and trucks have crashed and killed many service men, but no one seems to make a huge fuss about them. I have seen numerous comments around the web about how this shows we should not be in Iraq. I hate to be the one to break to all of you but we are in Iraq and complaining about Bush and how Kerry would have done a better job achieves nothing. N-o-t-h-i-n-g.

Looking at the casualty numbers it seems that a lot (not a majority) of casualties have been caused by non-combat related incidents (car accidents, falls, etc.). Do you blame those things on the war? Surely not. If one of the same car accidents happened in the states people wouldn’t picket with signs saying “Pull our troops out of Ft. Hood!”. No, people would, sadly, shrug it off.

I am not saying forget these Marines because they did not die while being shot at, I am saying mourn them as soldiers but do not use them as a reason to say that everything in Iraq is Fubar.

I have been thinking about an idea over and over for the last few days and today I have decided to go forward with it. I cannot go into detail as not all of the details have been locked down and right now I am just in the planning and research stages of it. I will share more later. It just feels good to have an idea that could potentially be huge…

Texas will be taking on Texas Tech tonight at 8pm CST. The game should be pretty good and if Texas does not pull their play together they could lose. Their performance in the last couple of Big XII games has left something to be desired and Tech has come off some big wins against Missouri and A&M.

If you get the chance, try to catch the game on your local sports station.

I believe that 30mph is God’s way of saying “move”. The temperature outside is around 65 but with the wind chill it feels like 25-30. It is just not right, but this is what we get for inhabiting the West Texas plains (with no windbreaks) and thinking we won’t pay for it. I am tempted to move to somewhere like Austin where stuff like this doesn’t happen…

Today is my dad’s birthday (I’ll spare him and not reveal how old he is).

Happy Birthday Dad!

I have noticed that since two semesters ago there has been a huge influx of iPods all over campus. I would say that 1 out of every 4-5 students has an iPod. This isn’t a scientific study, it is me just watching my surroundings and noticing what people are using to listen to music while they walk to class.

What does this mean for Apple? Well, they obviously have taken the market of harddrive MP3 players and are now moving into the flash based players with their iPod shuffle. You have to remember that by selling their players they are also selling iTunes and their music store which has become a huge source of revenue.

Apple is leading the way but will it lead to problems with their service and quality? I would certainly hope not but since they have already outsourced some of their support to India I can already see things taking a turn for the worst. I know that I do not want to pay $300 for the AppleCare plan and not be able to understand the person of the other end of the phone. This is one of those developing things that I hope Apple decides to take its time with and make sure it matures correctly.

Johnny Carson passed away today of emphysema.

I can still remember watching Johnny with my parents in the early 90’s and enjoying every minute of it. He was one of the best TV entertainers (if not the best) and had a huge impact on late night television.

Here is a great essay by an American lieutenant on the media in Iraq and the truth about what is really going on.

He gets straight to the point and tells it like it is, with the media being the main problem with getting the truth out about what is happening in Iraq. Read the essay, take from it what you want, but just realize that it was written by someone who is doing the shooting and being shot at. By someone who does not have an agenda, except to point out the fallacies that lie within the major media outlets.

I really need to update my class schedule. I’ll put it on my list of things to do tonight. A temporary list of classes can be seen below:

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

• Ethics 2320 11:00-11:50am

Tuesday and Thursday

• MIS Seminar 9:30-10:50am
• Special Topics in ISQS 11:00-12:20pm
• Public Policy 12:30-1:50pm

I also have an ISQS internship but that just requires me to write a paper that is due at the end of the semester.

The Register is reporting that the FBI’s controversial internet surveillance tool has officially been retired and that the bureau has started using an unnamed commercially available alternative.

Carnivore, under the USA PATRIOT Act gave the FBI access to a lot of information that would normally require a warrant to obtain. It is surprising to me that after spending a ton of money to get Carnivore up and running the FBI would just turn to a pre-made solution and use it. I would really like to know the underlying reasoning behind all of this.