In response the the Georgia Legislature believing it prudent to move Georgia’s northern border into Tennessee, the Mayor of Chattanooga issued the following proclamation:

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, it has come to pass that the heavens are shut up and a drought of Biblical proportions has been visited upon the Southern United States, and

WHEREAS, the parched and dry conditions have weighed heavily upon the State of Georgia and sorely afflicted those who inhabit the Great City of Atlanta, and

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In a move this is bound to have many a wild-eyed programmer choking on his energy drink, Microsoft has announced an official nod to open source.  While they will not be taking the plunge themselves, they promise no to sue open source programmers working with MS products (among other things). The move is not a total shift to the open model it is a significant step to at least play nice with OS projects.  Here’s the meat of the press release:

As an immediate next step, starting today Microsoft will openly publish on MSDN over 30,000 pages of documentation for Windows client and server protocols that were previously available only under a trade secret license through the Microsoft Work Group Server Protocol Program (WSPP) and the Microsoft Communication Protocol Program (MCPP). Protocol documentation for additional products, such as Office 2007 and all of the other high-volume products covered by these principles, will be published in the upcoming months.

Microsoft will indicate on its Web site which protocols are covered by Microsoft patents and will license all of these patents on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, at low royalty rates. To assist those interested in considering a patent license, Microsoft will make available a list of specific Microsoft patents and patent applications that cover each protocol.

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Gary Hubbell at the Aspen Times has an interesting piece on the angry white guy voting block. Give it a read and you’ll be surprised how much you like AWM. I liked his description so much that I have reprinted his article in its entirety here for posterity.

There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.

Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.

There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

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The shadow of the Earth will start eclipsing the moon tomorrow night around 8:50 pm EST. Full eclips-ation will occur around 10pm.

Here’s hoping the clouds don’t ruin it for us.

UPDATE: The clouds were kind for the first 10 minutes and then sporadic after that.  The 8″ scope could see through the thinner clouds but eventually, the clouds overwhelmed my optics with their density and we had to call it a night.  Hope everyone at least got a glimpse of the lunar show.

In case you haven’t figured it out from the utter lack of coverage, the US Military has been kicking butt in Iraq. The surge help our forces reach that critical mass of manpower. Coupled with the additional time, defections, and other gains - the point spread on this has shifted considerably in the last 6 months. The underdog Al-Qaeda now just looks like a dog and a rather small one at that.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq faces an “extraordinary crisis”. Last year’s mass defection of ordinary Sunnis from al-Qaeda to the US military “created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight”. The terrorist group’s security structure suffered “total collapse”.

These are the words not of al-Qaeda’s enemies but of one of its own leaders in Anbar province — once the group’s stronghold. They were set down last summer in a 39-page letter seized during a US raid on an al-Qaeda base near Samarra in November.

The US military released extracts from that letter yesterday along with a second seized in another November raid that is almost as startling.

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Between Super Tuesday and Romney stepping out, John McCain has all but locked up the Republican Nomination. And in much of the country there was weeping and nashing of teeth. In the past few days, I have spoken with countless Republicans that are struggling with which is stronger: their love of the party or their disgust with the Maverick.

McCain has been a liberal media darling for a variety of reasons: 1) historically he has tried his best to please the media (regardless of voter preferences) 2) the media sees him as a beatable candidate 3) if he some reason he did win, he’s liberal enough to be palatable as a Republican president. But NOW that the nomination has been sewn up for McCain the Democratic mouthpieces can focus on promoting Obama Mania.

WASHINGTON (AP) — While Republican John McCain is urging his conservative critics to rally around his presidential campaign, there is a lot of water under that bridge.

Here are the top 10 reasons some conservatives dislike the Arizona senator:

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Well it seems as though every two years, I get tired of the site.  So I reinvent it.

I know, I know, I’m about a month early but whataya going to do?

Sunday, the Giants completed the ultimate Cinderella Story: a wild card team, not only makes it to the superbowl, but prevents what would have been only the 2nd perfect season in NFL history. And it was a great game right down to the last minute score to win the game. This was one of the rare moments where a ARO staffer could be called un-patriotic…

But seriously, as the big day in Primaries ramps up this morning - could the underdog spirit spillover from Sunday? Certainly Obama’s camp has positioned itself in this manner. And it has worked well up to this point. Meanwhile, pundits have been calling the race as McCain’s for longer than he’s actually been leading.

American’s love underdogs - that can win. It’s really about perceived critical mass going today. I would wager 20-30% of the vote today will hinge on how close people believe the race is. The closer the perception of the gap is - the more those crucial votes will go to Obama and Romney.