Redefining Historic Preservation.....

Watched this interesting piece on Sunday Morning (CBS News) about how the concept of historic preservation is changing.

The PGA

The final major of the season - The PGA. Looks as if Phil Mickelson is doing extremely well. Hope he can continue to do well through Sunday.

Increasing Fuel Prices.....

Just filled up my car this morning and the grand total was $40 - and this ain't California! That is a first for me and looks as if it will not be the last. Fortunately my car gets pretty good gas mileage for a turbo - averages around 27 mpg on the highway. The mileage for the last tank of gas (which included the drive from Charleston, SC) was 470 miles. Most of my driving to work is on the highway but one drawback is the long commute - approximately 30 miles one way. BUT I do like the drive as I have the opportunity to listen to my iPod with no objections.

Hall of Fame Game

OMG! I can not believe it is time for the pro football season! This is Nick Saban's debut as head coach of the Dolphins. I wonder if former UT player Eddie Moore is still with the Dolphins. Guess I could find out using the internet as a research tool ;) Lemme check and I will get back to ya.....

***UPDATE*** Moore is indeed with the Dolphins - check here.

ACM SIGCOMM 2005 Turing Lecture.....

Too bad I will have to miss this lecture.

Washington Post article

Found this link to an article at washingtonpost.com at Slashdot. Extremely interesting.

Building Cells on the Web

In the last two years, a small number of cases have emerged in which jihadist cells appear to have formed among like-minded strangers who met online, according to intelligence officials and terrorism specialists. And there are many other cases in which bonds formed in the physical world have been sustained and nurtured by the Internet, according to specialists in and outside of government.

For example, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers burst into the Ottawa home of Mohammed Momin Khawaja, a 24-year-old computer programmer, on March 29, 2004, arresting him for alleged complicity in what Canadian and British authorities described as a transatlantic plot to bomb targets in London and Canada. Khawaja, a contractor with Canada's Foreign Ministry, met his alleged British counterparts online and came to the attention of authorities only when he traveled to Britain and walked into a surveillance operation being conducted by British special police, according to two Western sources familiar with the case.

British prosecutors alleged in court that Khawaja met with his online acquaintances in an Internet cafe in London, where he showed them images of explosive devices found on the Web and told them how to detonate bombs using cell phones. The first person jailed under a strict new Canadian anti-terrorism law passed after Sept. 11, Khawaja is not scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on his case until January.

The transit attacks in London may also have an Internet connection, according to several analysts. They appear to be successful examples of "al Qaeda's assiduous effort to cultivate and train professional insurgents and urban warfare specialists via the Internet," wrote Scheuer, the former CIA analyst.

In a posting not long after the London attacks, a member of one of the al Qaeda-linked online forums asked how to take action himself. A cell of two or three people is better, replied another member in an exchange translated by the SITE Institute. Even better than that is a "virtual cell, an agreement between a group of brothers over the Internet." It is "safe," extolled the anonymous poster, and "nobody will know the identity of each other in the beginning." Once "harmony and mutual trust" are established, training conducted and videos watched, then "you can meet in reality and execute some operation in the field."

nanotech news.....

Interesting info at foresight.org as well at sciencemag.org

Isle of Palms (Charleston, SC)

Finally made it here around 7.30 pm. Hotel has free wireless connection - nice. Overall it was a great trip, although we had a later than anticipated start. Stopped at The Beacon, where the menu offered only artery clogging fare so I opted to have sweet tea. I actually liked the sweet tea - this is rare as I do not drink sweet tea.

This morning I did indeed leave the house by 5.45 am! Made it to work around 6.20 am. Completed both of the reports that were due by 10.00 am. Fortunately I parked close so I did not have to walk forever to my car and left around 10.05 am. Finished packing stuff when I arrived and was ready to leave by 11.15 am BUT I had to wait on David - he had to turn in grades for his second session students, so he had to go to campus. Then he had to finish packing as well. We left the house around 12.50 pm. The weather was great and traffic was okay. I am totally surprised the Volvo C70 which passed me was not pulled over. I am sure it was going between 100-105 mph.

Looking forward to spending a day at the beach :)