Lincolnite

How lame am I for thinking that we need something like this in Lincoln?

March 2004: "There are economic isolationists in our country who believe we should separate ourselves from the rest of the world by raising up barriers and closing off markets. They're wrong." –President George W. Bush

May 2005: The Bush administration is re-imposing quotas on three categories of clothing imports from China, responding to complaints from domestic producers that a surge of Chinese imports was threatening thousands of U.S. jobs.

Read the whole thing.

Released today out of Chancellor Perlman's office: Colleagues: Today we are distributing to deans and directors the guidelines for implementing salary and wage increases for the coming fiscal year for UNL faculty and staff. We are working with an anticipated allocation that will allow for increases in salaries and wages for all University of Nebraska employees of 3.95% for faculty and 3.0% for staff. This is, of course contingent on the state's approval of the University's budget. While we may face very difficult budget decisions given the shortfall in tuition, we feel that we still must put a high priority on salaries in order to attract and retain the best possible talent. The instructions to department heads and directors indicate funds should be distributed with an emphasis on performance. Therefore, individual salary increases for employees will vary, with some employees receiving more or less. I'm curious to know what the thinking was behind sending this out to thousands of UNL faculty and staff today (Friday afternoon), although I have a few ideas. Any coincidence that this was sent out while a lot of faculty are out of office and taking their post-finals, end of the academic year vacations? The state budget proposal only got through the intial hoop...

Donald Rumsfeld has released his list of proposed base closings. The list includes five facilities in Nebraska:

• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Columbus
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Grand Island
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Kearny
• Naval Recruiting District Headquarters, Omaha
• Navy Reserve Center, Lincoln

I received this slideshow from a cousin out in Grand Island. Things have been just a little bit wet out that direction.

Oh man - Voinovich is gonna catch hell for this... Listen live at cspan. Defeat for George W.

This is coming to a subway near you soon. Brilliant move on their part IMHO.

Person Passing By My Desk: What's that you're eating? Brent: This? It's a chicken teriyaki bowl from Samurai Sam's. P: It looks really good. Smells good, too. B: It is. And it's both filling and fairly inexpensive. P: Where is Samurai Sam's? B: On 17th Street, near the UNL parking garage, connected to the gas station. P: Hmm, I'll have to try that sometime. That looks really good. That conversation alone isn't all that remarkable. What is sort of impressive is that I had the identical conversation three minutes apart with two different people. Then, not five minutes later, a third person walked by and commented on how good my lunch looked. She had been to Sam's before, and seeing me eating it reminded her that she hadn't been there in a long time. It's not often that a fast food restaurant's food draws so many positive comments. When was the last time you ate at Samurai Sam's?

John Kerry promised to release his military records 100 days ago. Perhaps he just needs to be reminded to sign the form.

I hate Windows XP Service Pack 2's new security features. Now in order for me to open a simple Access file I have to click through FOUR different security warnings:

1. Do you want to open this file? Uhh, well, yeah, that's why I clicked on it.
2. Security Warning: Unsafe Expressions Are Not Blocked. I don't even know what that means. The database I want to open contains a couple tables. No scripts, nothing fancy. Just a couple tables. Just open the friggin' file!
3. Unsafe Expressions Not Blocked. Are you sure you want to open this file? Yes! Open the damn file!
4. This file may not be safe if it contains code that was intended to harm your computer. Do you want to open this file or cancel the operation? Open. The. Damn. File.

Repeat that process several times each day with various databases.

Ever wonder how much federal legislation will cost you? Now you can find out.

Well, that's what Cal Thomas thinks, anyway.

I recently stumbled across a series of essays by Paul Graham. I have only read a few -- starting with one on life as a nerd -- but I have found the ones I have read to be very enjoyable.

I recently discovered a new web comic strip called Medium Large. It's pretty funny most of the time, lampooning various aspects of pop culture. Many (but not all) of the Fox News and Bush jokes aren't especially creative or funny. For example, many of the strips about Election 2004 are pretty bland rehashes of the same old jokes everybody else was telling at the time. But don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

The Brits will be voting tomorrow in a battle pitting euroskeptics against the pro-EU crowd, privatization issues over the national health service, and an ugly campaign about immigration policy. My prediction: Blair will win, but leftist seats of the labour party and moderate seats of the tories will lose minor ground to the Liberal Democrats. Michael Howard will be the big loser and the conservatives will later opt for a new leader, and Charles Kennedy's gut will explode from overeating haggis.