My dear daughter starts her first day of kindergarten next Tuesday. I am so happy we don’t live in an area where people are trying to push intelligent design to be taught beside evolution. In the 80s, there were those that tried to push a similar agenda in the classroom with the teaching of creationism. I can respect faith and religion, but do not mix faith and religion with science. I am so unhappy that the President and the Senate Majority Leader, two people who are meant to lead and represent our country, believe intelligent design should be taught in schools.

The stories Mistakes Led to Tube Shooting and Leak disputes Menezes death story are very disturbing considering the first news reports said that Jean Charles De Menezes was running and wearing a heavy overcoat when he was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder. It appears now that De Menezes was only wearing a denim jacket, and was restrained in a tube (subway) car before he was shot. At this point, it appears that the family of De Menezes should win a huge settlement from the British government, and Scotland Yard has a huge embarrassment on its hands.

My sense of illusion was lost when a old Huey picked up the soldier who had just lost his leg from an IED at the end of the pilot episode of Over There. The pickup would have been with a Blackhawk, not a Huey, but perhaps the budget isn’t big enough or there are no spare Blackhawks available because of the present war in Iraq.

Yesterday, I was checking out SDSL rates on the Covad website. This morning, I get a call from Covad. It turns out they process a log every night of who checks out the rate page for their services and cross-reference the IPs with a company’s contact info and give them a call to ask if they have any questions. I found this out after asking them why they called me. I told them I felt this was intrusive since I never asked them to contact me. The guy said my name in a patronizing manner and started to explain, but I said, “Thank you.” and hung up.

According to this cyclingnews.com article, the Trek Madone was named by Lance Armstrong

Lance actually named the bike himself after the Col de la Madone in Menton, France, where Armstrong tested himself in training. “The Col de la Madone is a 12km climb that starts in the French village of Menton. It rises from close to sea level to 927 meters. Cyclists have long used it to test themselves. Having lived in Nice for four years, I rode it many times as well. The record of 31:30 stood for many years, until in 1999 when I broke it with a 30:47. For me, the Madone is the ultimate test. It always tells me if I’m ready – ready to ride fast and ultimately, win the Tour de France. It never fails.”

One visual part of the bike I like is how the top tube flares where it meets the head tube. I’m also glad the Madone doesn’t have a compact frame style so that it’s easy to fit two large water bottles in my small 50 cm frame. Madone is also not to be confused with the word “madrone” which is a type of tree.