May 2005

Deep Throat revealed?

May 31, 2005

W. Mark Felt, a former FBI Official, told Vanity Fair that he was the anonymous source known as Deep Throat. The report counter's both Felt's 1999 denial to the Hartford Courant saying that he would have done better had he been Deep Throat.

In 2003 a University of Illinois journalism class published the results of a four-year investigation in which they name Fred Fielding, deputy counsel to former President Richard Nixon as the most likely source for the information.

James Mann argued the idea that Deep Throat was from the FBI in his May 1992 article for the Atlantic Monthly. In the article he quotes from Felt's 1979 memoir about finding a replacement for J. Edgar Hoover:

It did not cross my mind that the President would appoint an outsider to replace Hoover. Had I known this, I would not have been hopeful about the future. There were many trained executives in the FBI who could have effectively handled the job of Director. My own record was good and I allowed myself to think I had an excellent chance.

Mann goes on to suggest that the fierce independence of the FBI was threatened by Nixon's appointment of an outsider to head the agency that would ultimately investigate the June 17th break-in at the Watergate Hotel.

Update: The story has been confirmed by Bob Woodward and Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post.

Another anniversary post

May 30, 2005

I've posted several times over the past few months about how quickly the last year has disappeared. Sitting the the comfort of my home office, even though it is a bit cluttered, it is hard to imagine a full year has passed.

One year ago we were in the midst of unpacking. When we left Colorado it seemed we had gotten rid of a lot of unneeded things before the trip. When we started unpacking it became clear quickly that more pruning was necessary. We've done quite a bit over the past year and still have more to do. On the home front, things are looking much better than they did.

A couple of dozen more trees are getting their foothold and starting to really take off. The back yard has lawn in it and most of the property is covered by drip irrigation. The garden is doing quite well and the new round-pen sits in place of the junk pile that was once. Plenty of projects remain but it is nice to look back every once in a while and see just how far we've come.

Warning signs

May 29, 2005

The first clue should have been the entry form. When signing up for a Spirit Therapies charitable trail ride all of the information about when and where the ride was was on the part of the entry form that went back to the organization.

Waking with the dawn we laid in bed a while longer and went out about 6 AM on Saturday to get the horses and tack ready for the day's ride. We'd be trailering with Linda, one of our neighbors to Spring Mountain State Park, near Red Rock Canyon west of Las Vegas. Methodically we moved the saddles, cleaned the horses, double-checked for the extra sun-screen, lugged the five-gallon water jug and got ready for the trip. All set for our 7 AM departure. We waited, and waited.

Eventually, deciding there must be a problem, Sarah called and woke Linda up. The day after a swing-shift Linda was sleeping when the phone rang. She reminded us that the trail ride was on Sunday. Linda went back to sleep and we loaded up for a ride across Sandy Valley instead.

Accessory apartments for Clark County?

May 28, 2005

The Clark County Commission will consider a change to the county's land-use code, Title 30, allowing accessory apartments in several single-family residential areas. Accessory apartments would be limited to 30% of the square footage of the main residence and in the urban and suburban areas could not exceed 1000 sq. ft. In rural areas the maximum size, also limited to 30% of the main residence, is 2000 sq. ft.

In rural areas the accessory apartment can be the building that was originally the primary residence but the accessory apartment cannot be rented or leased until the principal residence is occupied by the property owner. A condition of the accessory apartment proposal would require that the property owner occupy either the primary residence or accessory apartment and that a deed restriction be placed on the deed listing and acknowledging the conditions of the accessory apartment provision.

House increses spending in Indian Springs, Nevada

May 28, 2005

$60 million could be headed to Indian Springs, Nev., after the House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (PDF). The bill provides $84 million for construction and land acquisition in Nevada, including over $60 million for construction at Indian Springs Auxiliary Air Field where the Predator program is based.

Canon GL2 blues

May 27, 2005

Since I just did one work story why not follow it up with another. This week several Canon GL2 video cameras came in. They are quite simply amazing video cameras. Everything about them is right, easy to access controls, substantial handles - they look and feel good all around.

My joy over getting to work with these new tools was put on hold today though. It seems the GL2 I opened has a problem. It doesn't believe the tape can be written to. No matter what position the "write protect" slider is in the camera reports the tape cannot be written to. Bummer. Now several cycles will be spent on how to get it repaired.

I read the news today.... oh boy...

May 27, 2005

Generally in writing here I refrain from commenting too much about my employer. Today, however, the daily police listing of calls has one that is too good to pass up. So here for your Friday evening reading is the crime of the week:

THEFT Larceny - Grand - Building MAY 23 2005-Monday at 08:22 05-05-23-08462

Location: CENTER ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT OUTREACH 050557

Summary: A SURVEILLANCE CAMERA OUTSIDE SUITE 400 WAS STOLEN BETWEEN 6:50AM AND 6:55AM ON 5/22/05.

DISPOSITION: INACTIVE

Must have been a very effective surveillance camera.

Division Review

May 26, 2005

I went to bed on Wednesday at 2100 hours knowing I'd have to wake up at 0515 to be at the staging area by 0700 for the Division Review.

The air was still brisk as I rode through Fort Campbell Gate 7 at 0630 on my motorcycle. I smelled the sweet scent of honeysuckle as I approached the gate guard with my ID card and noted briefly that the other soldiers, secure in their cars, windows rolled-up, radios on, probably didnt even know that there were fragrant flowers clinging to the fences on either side of the road. I passed through the gate and quickly found parking for my bike at the staging area.

The plan, rehearsed the previous day, was for all of the companies in 5th Battallion to form-up at the staging area. We would then march together to the parade field and link up with the rest of the division for the planned review. I met with Bravo Company and joined my co-workers in a mass formation. The First Sergents proceeded to arrange everyone in the Battallion in size order.

I am about average height and, as a result, found myself standing in the center of the formation. This is an ideal location for blending in. I listened, smiling to myself, as the Specialist next to me complained to the Sergent next to her.

"All of my friends are short and not standing near me." she said

"Make some friends in this area", he suggested.

"Nah", she said, inclining her head toward me, "the only people around here are snobby aviators".

"They have no reason to be snobby", the sergent informed her, "they are not even required to have college diplomas anymore."

Week of the Eagles

May 25, 2005

The past few days have been busy but not particularly productive. Let me start by telling you about my weekend.

Several of the warrant officers in my Company invited me to go dirt bike riding with them at a National Recreation Area called "Land Between the Lakes (LBL)" (http://www.lbl.org/Home.html). The area is about 40 minutes from here and is covered with trails for both motorized and non-motorized use. We went to the Turkey Creek OHV area which is reserved for motorized off-highway vehicles.

Many of you know that I own a KLX-650 motorcycle. This is considered a "dual sport" bike meaning that is can be used on or off-road. It is kind of like the SUV of motorcycles. I rode my KLX to LBL where I met my friends. They brought their motorcycles on trailers because, unlike me, that had machines dedicated to difficult trail riding. Their bikes were much smaller and lighter than mine. Moreover, my friends are experienced dirt bike riders. This was my first time bringing my motorcycle off-road.

I got bloody and muddy, and tired and frustrated and had a great time! We spent the day riding trails that I never imagined could be ridden on my motorcycle. I spent a lot of time floundering in deep mud pits trying to pick my very heavy bike back up. The rest of the time was spent chasing my buddies over jumps, around trees, through boulders and up steep hills. It was great fun and good bonding with the guys I will be training (and fighting) with.

The rest of the week has not been nearly as much fun or as good for morale. It is the "Week of the Eagles" at Fort Campbell. This is supposed to be a week of self-congratulatory, esprit de corps events. In reality, it is a lot of group runs and parades and inspections.

TurnItIn's statement on fair use

May 23, 2005

This is pretty funny. TurnItIn cites the following case law when explaining how their commercial use of people's work meets the standards of fair use. "materially impair the marketability of the work which is copied." Let's assume for a minute I'm running a term-paper mill and selling my term papers. The indexing of my papers in TurnItIn will destroy their marketability. It may not be ethical to sell term papers but I'm aware of no law against it.

A final problem I have with their page explaining copyright is it says nothing about end user licenses. I've distributed materials under licenses that forbids any derivative commercial use. Yet they will happily store my works in their system and espouse their position that they are completely within their rights.

There are some more interesting arguments in this 2001 response to an email. Including the statement in response to a query about a student who specifically denied the right to upload their paper to an www site. "[U]se of the student's paper would be deemed fair because rather than constituting infringement, the use prevents infringement of that paper from occurring." In other words we think our use should be OK so it is.

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