Okay, this is kinda funny.

Last night, before going to bed, I set Data Rescue X to work on my busted hard drive. When I woke up, it had finished scanning 52,787 “blocks,” but had stalled on a “slow read,” presumably because of all the “platter damage” or whatever. Now, 52,787 might sound like a lot, but by my count, there are 78,149,632 “blocks” on my hard drive. So yeah.

I let the scan continue all day long, hoping it might get past the platter-damaged portion of the drive and speed up a bit. Alas, no such luck. When I got home from work just now, it had finished scanning 101,233 “blocks” — almost double this morning’s total, but still only about 0.12% of the hard drive. That’s over the course of approximately 14 hours… so it averages out to roughly 7,231 “blocks” (or 0.00925% of the hard drive) per hour. Thus, at the current rate, Data Rescue X would be done scanning my hard drive in about 10,808 hours, or if you prefer, 450 days — i.e., on October 13, 2006, or thereabouts.

So yeah, I cancelled the scan. :)

(This would not seem to be a software problem with Data Rescue X, but rather an inherent problem with my dead drive, because I ran into a very similar speed issue with FileSalvage.)

In honor of the anniversary of the the Apollo 11 moon landing, Google has set up a site that uses NASA imagery and their Google Maps technology to provide a map of all the lunar landing sites. Be sure to zoom all the way in.

I know some reporters are averse to the term “terrorists.” I thought I’d offer some possible alternatives: (WARNING: Heavy swearing follows. In two languages.)

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Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts may be a Bills fan, owing to his very early childhood years in Buffalo, but he spent most of his youth in Indiana, and he considers himself a Hoosier.

He lived in Long Beach, went to grade school at Notre Dame Elementary School in Michigan City, attended high school at a Catholic boarding school called La Lumiere in LaPorte, and — as Bush mentioned in his introduction Tuesday night — worked summers during college in Burns Harbor at Bethlehem Steel, where his father worked.

So, in light of all these ties not just to Indiana, but to northern Indiana, and also his affiliation with the Catholic Church generally and Catholic education specifically, Alex Talcott says what y’all were thinking: “I think we should expect a visit!!” :)

In what sounds like a half-hearted copy-cat attack by some sicko, “minor explosions using detonators only” hit three Tube stations and a bus in London this morning, forcing evacuations and undoubtedly causing panic.

Police in London say they are not treating the incidents as “a major incident yet”. … The BBC’s Andrew Winstanley said devices had been found but appeared to have been dummies, containing no explosives.

One person has been injured (it is not clear how seriously). Alex and Patrick have more. Alex points out that the 7/7 bombings were two weeks ago today.

UPDATE: BBC Breaking News Alert: “Met police chief says Tube and bus blasts ‘very serious’ and tells Londoners to ’stay where you are’.” Is the chief merely exercising an abundance of caution, or does he know something we don’t know (e.g., that more attacks may follow)? Pray for the former, rather than the latter…

UPDATE 2: The BBC’s Andrew Marr reports:

We’ve spoken to some ministers and they have made clear they know little more than we do.

They will be trying to establish whether this is a series of hoaxes.

The biggest difficulty for the COBRA [emergency security committee] meeting this afternoon is how you treat these kind of incidents - are we going to see many of them?

And what kind of response is appropriate in such a large city that you want to keep moving?

UPDATE 3: From the Guardian blog, via InstaPundit:

It is now becoming clear that there were three attempted bombings today - at Oval station, at Warren Street station, and on a 26 bus in Hackney. Speculation suggests the detonators on these devices went off, but the bombs themselves did not.

Glenn says “this suggests amateurism, or a substantial degradation of Al Qaeda capabilities.” The Guardian seems to agree: “first indications suggested those responsible for today’s attacks were ‘amateurs’ and their bombs were crude. There is a report for example, that one of the devices was a nail bomb.” That all may be true, but personally, I doubt whether anything is really “becoming clear” just yet. The Fog of War always comes into play in a situation like this.

InstaPundit is also reporting that, according to Sky News, “British police are in hot pursuit of one of the bombers, apparently a suicide bomber whose bomb didn’t go off.”

UPDATE 4: According to InstaPundit, “Sky news is reporting that the bus bomb is identical to designs used in the 7/7 attacks.” Identical in design, maybe, but far less deadly in execution, clearly. The BBC also cites a link to 7/7:

Police sources say the blasts may have been near simultaneous and that they are being linked with the 7 July bombs.

They say a number of fugitives are being sought. Two people have been arrested in Whitehall.

The storm-total Doppler radar rainfall estimate for the area where Hurricane Emily made landfall this morning is damn impressive.

If there’s one thing I’ve found to be consistently true in my years as a computer geek, it’s that you always learn the most about computers when you’re trying to fix them. Probably 90 percent of the techie knowledge that I possess today, I stumbled upon while trying to solve some problem, avert some crisis or get around some pesky obstacle. Troubleshooting is the crucible of discovery.

So, in the wake of my laptop’s hard-drive meltdown, let’s just say I’ve discovered a lot in the past few days.

I’ve read all about what causes hard drives to randomly die. I’ve been introduced to strange new terms like “B-tree node” (mine is an “invalid size,” apparently) and “platter damage” (which has nothing to do with hors d’oeuvres). I’ve discovered Target Disk Mode (very helpful and cool!). I’ve googled my way through more boot key combinations than you can shake a stick at. I’ve learned how to mount an HFS disk from the command line (not that that actually worked for me, but whatever), and how to burn a disk image to a CD in Panther (Disk Utility is my friend). I’ve become an expert on data-recovery programs like DiskWarrior (bought it, didn’t work), TechTool Deluxe (already owned it, didn’t work), FileSalvage (tried the shareware version, didn’t work) and Data Rescue X (presently giving the demo version a whirl, no luck yet). I’ve even learned that it may be possible to salvage data from a broken hard drive by putting in the freezer, though some advise against it. (I haven’t tried it… yet.)

And there’s more. O-ho, there’s more. For one thing, there’s the rather amusing fact that my 1999 vintage G3 Blue & White, purchased in April for $139 and conceived primarily as the “FishCam computer,” has now been converted into a veritable digital hub, connected at times to as many as four hard drives, plus my old external Iomega CD-RW drive (which had been collecting dust for years; not anymore). Oh yeah, and the G3 now has a brand-spanking-new 17-inch Compaq monitor, which I bought literally five minutes before closing time at Circuit City the other night when, in the middle of a crucial data-recovery operation, my old monitor decided that was an excellent moment to stop working and start mysteriously smelling like smoke.

Anyway, the bottom line in all of this is that, by all appearances, barring some unexpected miracle, my hard drive is dead, and the data I haven’t yet managed to recover is probably gone forever.

*sniff*

Yes, it was painful for me to say that. But there it is. Rest in peace, hard drive.

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NASA will try again to launch the Space Shuttle Discovery on Tuesday at 9:39 AM EST (South Bend time), which is 10:39 AM EDT (East Coast time) and 7:39 AM PDT (West Coast time).

Professor Garnett says John Roberts is an excellent choice for the Supreme Court:

Notre Dame Law School’s Professor Richard W. Garnett, a former law clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, praised fellow former clerk Judge John G. Roberts, whom President George Bush announced yesterday as his nominee for the Supreme Court.

Garnett, who knows and has long admired Judge Roberts, said that President Bush “has demonstrated his respect for the law, the courts, and the Constitution by nominating Judge John Roberts, a true ‘lawyer’s lawyer,’ to the Supreme Court.

“Roberts is a brilliant, careful, and wonderfully gifted lawyer,” Garnett said. “Everyone familiar with his work, whether he or she is left, right, or center, acknowledges Roberts as one of the best appellate lawyers of his generation. Americans should be pleased and proud; Roberts is the kind of judge, with the kind of gifts, that the Supreme Court deserves.”

Garnett’s statement has been widely quoted.

There’s lots of Daylight Saving Time news to report today, and in light of the BrendanLoy.com community’s obsession with the issue, I figured I’d better blog about it. :)

On the national scene, Congress wants to expand DST by two months. “[N]egotiators from the Senate and House yesterday agreed to move the start of daylight saving time in the United States one month earlier to the first Sunday in March. The end of daylight time would be delayed one month to the last Sunday in November.” The energy bill effecting this change could reach President Bush’s desk by August 1.

On the international scene, Ontario may follow suit if the U.S. expands DST.

Last but certainly not least, on the local scene, it has “become clear” that federal action to move all or most of Indiana from the Eastern to the Central time zone — the promise of which was a key factor in tipping the legislative balance toward adopting Daylight Saving Time back in April — will not happen. It seems Indiana (except the far western counties) is staying in the Eastern time zone, and starting next year, we’ll be synchronized with the East Coast (and Michigan) year-round.

Legislators who voted for DST on the assumption that federal time-zone hearings would occur are not pleased, and some are talking repeal, urging Hoosiers to demand a return to their holdout status as a year-round Standard Time state:

“Really the only way the bill squeaked through was the fact that they thought there’d be these regional hearings,” said South Bend, Indiana Democratic Representative B. Patrick Bauer. “It wouldn’t have passed without it.”

Now that it’s clear which way the wind is really blowing, some in Indiana are anxious to vote again.

“I think if people around the state of Indiana raise enough heck, we can get this thing repealed and go back to being one of three states that don’t change their clocks,” said Democrat Representative Craig Fry.

I say, let Fry fry. Bauer & co., too. This should serve as a valuable lesson to legislators not to vote for a bill on the basis of promises and assumptions that are not included in the bill. (The same goes for Democrats who voted to authorize the Iraq war on the basis of various “assurances,” then got all huffy when those “assurances” were not met to their satisfication… but I digress…)

Actor James Doohan, most famous for his role as Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott from TV’s Star Trek passed away this morning at his Redmond, WA home from a combination of pneumonia and Alzheimer’s. He was 85.

Doohan, a Canadian born actor served in the Canadian armed forces and was a veteran of the D-Day invasion. After the war he enrolled in an acting class in Toronto and went on to win a scholarship at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where he was a classmate of Leslie Nielson and Tony Randall.

Unlike fellow Trek actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, who both struggled with the legacy of their roles for many years before coming to accept them later in life, Doohan early on came to accept and enjoy the after effects of his Scotty role.

Doohan is survived by his nine children (six from his previous two marriages) and his wife Wende of 28 years.

Let the games begin: it seems Ann Coulter doesn’t like John Roberts. She calls him a potential Souter, and declares: “If the Senate were in Democrat hands, Roberts would be perfect. But why on earth would Bush waste a nomination on a person who is a complete blank slate when we have a majority in the Senate!” She goes on:

[W]e don’t know much about John Roberts. Stealth nominees have never turned out to be a pleasant surprise for conservatives. Never. Not ever. …

It means absolutely nothing that NARAL and Planned Parenthood attack him: They also attacked Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Hackett Souter. …

It means nothing that Roberts wrote briefs arguing for the repeal of Roe v. Wade when he worked for Republican administrations. He was arguing on behalf of his client, the United States of America. …

And it makes no difference that conservatives in the White House are assuring us Roberts can be trusted. We got the exact same assurances from officials working for the last president Bush about David Hackett Souter.

I believe their exact words were, “Read our lips; Souter’s a reliable conservative.”

Heh. Of course, Coulter’s article is also filled with various offensive and incendiary remarks, like her statement that “the only way a Supreme Court nominee could win the approval of NARAL and Planned Parenthood would be to actually perform an abortion during his confirmation hearing, live, on camera, and preferably a partial birth one,” and her opening line castigating Roberts for being, horror of horrors, a white male, and accusing Bush of “pretending to consider various women and minorities” (an unsupported racist and sexist gripe which I already addressed here). But then, it’s Ann Coulter; of course she’s offensive. I just think it’s interesting that Roberts is facing at least some opposition on the Right. And so does Drudge, apparently.

And Coulter’s not alone — not quite, anyway. InstaPundit quotes a reader (scroll down) who writes, “Great. O’Connor with a penis. I’m supposed to be happy about this? … Frankly this conservative is completely underwhelmed.” But Insty also points to this conservative, who disagrees, declaring, “I’m not terribly worried that Judge Roberts will turn out to be ‘another Souter.’ … Dubya and his staff certainly know vastly more about Judge Roberts’ character and core beliefs than, for example, Poppy Bush ever could have known about David Souter or than the Gipper ever could have known about Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy. … Don’t misunderestimate your president, my conservative friends. Rejoice and have faith!”

Then there’s the liberal response, which, under the circumstances, I find decidedly less interesting than the conservative response. Take this selected quote from Kos crowd, for example: “Blah, blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah. This judge is another Scalia or Thomas. I can see it. He’s a conservative, all right. No doubt about it. So no moderate.” Hmm… wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight: Bush appointed a conservative?!? We have a Republican president and a Republican Congress, and he appointed a conservative?!?! I’m SHOCKED, I tell you, SHOCKED!!! Next you’ll tell me that elections mean something, and that we shouldn’t all just submit to the will of the New York Times editorial board! My whole worldview is collapsing around me!

[/sarcasm]

Anyway… here are some quotes about Roberts from various politicos. One key player in all this will be Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who apparently doesn’t much care for Judge Roberts — though he likes the fact that His Honor is a Bills fan.

Finally, I leave you with the head-smackingly obvious headline of the day:

Battle Over Nominee May Center on Abortion

Gee… ya think?

Hurricane Emily, a Category 3 storm with 125 mph winds, is making landfall right now near Gpe. Victoria, Mexico:

Here’s the latest advisory. WXNation has lots of links.

UPDATE: Here’s a 4-hour animated GIF of Emily making landfall (1,014 KB).

Dr. Jeff Masters has a good post about Emily, featuring an excellent view of her concentric eyewalls at landfall, as well as the following summary:

Mexico was unfortunate to have the storm slow down and make landfall at peak intensity. The slow motion of the storm means that the coast will be exposed to a long period of high water and battering waves. However, this portion of the coast is sparsely populated. Browsville is just north of the area of hurricane force winds, but the coastal areas will take a severe pounding from Emily’s storm surge. The rains of Emily, expected to bring 2 - 4 inches to South Texas, will be most welcome, as this part of Texas is under extreme drought.

The Brownsville radar shows an excellent view of Hurricane Emily approaching the Mexican coast.

Maximum sustained winds are still at 125 mph as of 10:00 PM EST. The storm’s forward speed has slowed significantly — to 7 mph, and at times it has looked essentially stalled on radar — so landfall is now not expected to occur until morning. Emily could strengthen to a Category 4, but Steve Gregory thinks that she would then weaken back to a Cat. 3 before landfall, because of cooler water temperatures ahead. Dr. Jeff Masters, meanwhile, says he gives up predicting what Emily is going to do next. “I’m just going to watch.”

President Bush will announce tonight that he has nominated D.C. Circuit Judge John G. Roberts to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

Roberts is only 50 years old, so he could be on the Court for a loooong time. He was born in Buffalo, New York, and he clerked for Rehnquist. I wonder if Rick Garnett knows him?

Anyway, since this whole Supreme Court debate is really a big euphamism for abortion, let’s cut to the chase. On TV, they’re quoting what Roberts said when he was up for a spot on the Court of Appeals: “Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land. … There’s nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent.” That’s irrelevant, of course: as a Supreme Court justice, he would have the power to change the “settled law of the land,” to overrule precedent, which he could not do on the D.C. Circuit. So that quote tells us nothing.

Similarly unhelpful is the article that Drudge is now headlining: it quotes something Roberts wrote in a brief on behalf of the first Bush Administration in 1991: “[W]e continue to believe that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled.” Since he was just speaking for his boss, not necessarily for himself, that’s irrelevant, too. Drudge calls it fodder for an “ABORTION WAR.” I call bulls**t.

Would Justice Roberts vote to overturn Roe v. Wade? I don’t know, and neither do you.

But what about all the other issues that the Supreme Court is occasionally asked to rule on — you know, when it isn’t too busy deciding abortion cases? Where does John Roberts stand on pesky little things like the Interstate Commerce Clause and the recently eviscerated right to be secure in one’s property? I’m not sure, but I’ll post the goods if/when I find them. For now, here’s a profile, here’s another, and here’s another (scroll down).

UPDATE: About that whole abortion thing… apparently his wife is the Executive Vice President of Feminists For Life.

CORRECTION: She’s the former Executive Vice President of Feminists for Life, according to Maureen at RedState, who observes:

This matters, and it cannot be underestimated. Look at Ginny Thomas and Maureen Scalia - one does not sleep in the same bed as someone who has dedicated themselves to this cause without ramifications. The strong opinions of the New York Times will not beat out the strong opinions of a dedicated spouse.

Of course, if Roberts is a good judge and a brilliant legal mind, like everyone says he is, he will decide whether to overturn Roe v. Wade on the basis of sound legal reasoning regarding the constitutional issues, not on the basis of his or his wife’s personal opinion on the underlying substantive issue of abortion. (Put another way, the proper question isn’t whether Roberts is “pro-life” or “pro-choice,” “anti-abortion-rights” or “pro-abortion-rights” or whatever; the question is whether he is “pro-Roe” or “anti-Roe.”)

But I digress. Just wanted to clear up the factual issue of Mrs. Roberts’s involvement; sorry for the earlier misstatement in that regard. (BTW, for those who don’t trust RedState as a reliable source, the Boston Globe observes that “the role of his lawyer wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, in Feminists for Life, a group dedicated to overturning Roe v. Wade, is also certain to raise liberal eyebrows.”)