Chad in 'state of war' with Sudan

Chad says it is in "a state of war" with neighbour Sudan over the security crisis in the east of the country.

Drink the Kool-Aid

I drank the Kool-Aid.

On Friday I predicted, outloud to a witness, that the Seahawks were going to the Superbowl.

There were a few moments on Sunday when I was sure I'd jinxed the entire season.

I wonder what it is about my brain that believes these irrational bits of thought, time and time again. Of course I know that nothing I do can affect the game. Well, I believe in the home field advantage, and I believe the crowd can affect a game, but that's different. I don't believe that the Hawks will win or lose depending on the jersey I wear, or whether I'm watching on TV, or whether I admit out loud that I think I'll win.

It's similar to those damned Dead Nigerian Prince emails I occasionally receive. To this very day when I read one, I get a quick rush of excitement. The fortune could be mine! But of course it's fake, and I know that.

Supplies

What I want to do:

Find the supplies that appear on the most carts. Those will become standard supplies and will be found in all the new carts.

Find the supplies that are used most frequently. When appropriate, those will be stocked in the rooms. The supplies that are also in the standard carts will be stocked in all the rooms. The others will be in a modular system that is clinic based.

Maybe MA's will have trays or something to put the non-global supplies in.

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked

This is an insightful article that goes after some anti video game conventional wisdom. It acknowledges the opposing arguments and presents a strong refutation of those arguments.

Quick Analysis

I would be shocked if the Seahawks didn't beat Tennessee next Sunday.

They have a very real chance of winning on Christmas Eve against Indy because Indy has already locked up homefield advantage and a first round bye. They may not bring their A game. On the other hand, the Hawks may be in a similar position, so it may wind up a game mostly against both B squads.

Playoffs

Seattle has clinched division title. Seattle clinches a first-round bye with: 1) SEA win OR 2) SEA tie + NYG loss or tie + CAR loss or tie + TB loss or tie OR 3) SEA tie + NYG loss or tie + CHI loss OR 4) SEA tie + CHI loss + CAR loss or tie + TB loss or tie OR 5) NYG loss + CAR loss + TB loss Seattle clinches homefield advantage: 1) SEA win + CHI loss or tie OR 2) SEA tie + CHI loss + NYG loss or tie + TB loss or tie + CAR loss or tie

He's lying, or he's stupid: Bush says 30,000 Iraqis killed since war began

Bush says 30,000 Iraqis killed since war began

In answer to a question about the Iraqi death toll, Bush said about 30,000
Iraqis have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Bush's figure for the death toll among Iraqis was in the range given by
Iraq
Body Count, a U.S. British nongovernmental group, which currently says
between 27,383 and 30,892 civilians -- rather than all Iraqi citizens --
have
been killed in Iraq since the invasion.

Its figures are based on
media reports, which often fail to capture all
deaths in the country. Other
estimates, including one done by scientists and
published in the medical
journal Lancet, put the civilian death toll as high as
100,000.

Either he's lying, or he's flat ignorant and stupid. Those are the options. Every day is a new embarrasment for our Mad President George.

He's lying, or he's stupid. He's lying, or he's stupid.

Idea

Maybe I'll add all the items that appear on 3 or 4 or more carts to all of the new carts.

Then I'll sort the remainder items and add some of that stuff too. Some of the current carts are shared, so items on those carts will weigh heavier.

Next question is what to put into the rooms.

Supply Breakdown v1.0

410 different kinds of items.

1 item appears 7 times
20 items appear 6 times
21 items appear 5 times
35 appear 4
53 appear 3
83 appear 2
197 appear 1 time

Supplies

Right now we have about 7 "supermarkets" for clinic supplies. In the new building we'll still have 7, but the configuration will be very different. Different services will share in the future than share now.

I have 7 lists in front of me. When I'm finished, I'll have 7 new lists.

I could go item by item and see what appears on which carts. It would be intereting to know what items appear on all the carts, or most of the carts. It's also good to learn which items are oddballs for specific useage only.

I might put them all in a column in Excel, sort by Item number, then see how many times they appear. I like this idea. Seems pretty efficient. I will then have to cross reference cart numbers with the actual name and location, but that's not so bad.

Warren Ellis stuff to remember

From his recent Bad Signal:

In summer 2006, I'm going to belaunching an ongoing title at Marvelcalled
newuniversal. No capital N,no capital U. We refer to it in-houseas
NU -- and I might have called itNU, if it didn't always suggestnu-metal to
me.The central concept, these days,also looks kind of generic. WildCards
did it, RISING STARS did it,etc etc. Something called The WhiteEvent
occurs, and afterwards ahandful of people are found to havebeen made
superhuman. So far soblah. But, in looking at this stuff ona webpage
one night, it occurred tome that that's not what happened.What actually happened
was thatthere was this huge astronomicalevent where the skies went whiteall over
the world for a minute, andthe aftermath was that the lawsof physics had been
changed.

There's a sf book by a writer calledVernor Vinge where the laws ofphysics
are radically differentdepending on which part of thegalaxy you're in.
Conventionalphysics' dirty little secret is thatthe speed of light appears
tofluctuate.

There is, as I say, a whole libraryof science fiction
aboutsuperhumanity. These are notsuperhero novels. Some lean
closerthan others, of course -- Zelaznyand Saberhagen's COILS comes tomind, and
SLAN was very clearly aprecedent to the X-Men. Butthere's a lot more that
speaks to,if you like, the superhuman condition. Melding that with
thenotion that suddenly the laws ofphysics can go and stay slightlynuts... In
one six-hour session, Igenerated a bunch of notes abouthow and why this could
happen,with some ideas from some oldabandoned projects of mine (fromthe Loose
Ideas folder) fittingthemselves into it...

Sure, it's not exactly cut from wholecloth. Like I said, it's a
writingchallenge. Blows the cobwebs out abit. Makes you focus on the
craft abit. Sometimes it's worth sittingdown and thinking, what *does*
make a Marvel character work?(Answer: tragedy.)

Olerud bows out quietly

John Olerud, who walked straight off the Washington State campus and into the major leagues 17 years ago, is calling it quits.

The veteran first baseman, who spent 4 1/2 seasons with the Mariners before being let go in the middle of the 2004 season, made his wishes known through the Boston Red Sox.

The hit

I ran across Steve Largent's revenge on Mike Harden on December 11, 1988. In their previous meeting earlier that year, Harden knocked out two of Largent's teeth on an illegal hit.

Largent's revenge hit allowed the Seahawks to get the ball back and may have saved that game.

Seahawks.com