On the second-to-last day of the Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Epsilon has formed!

Epsilon is the 26th tropical storm of what the NHC calls “the apparently never ending 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.” (Recall that the previous single-season record was 21. We haven’t just broken it, we’ve smashed it.) It is also the third storm in the usually quiet month of November. Thankfully, it’s out over the open Atlantic, no threat to any land at this time.

The storm is expected to reach near-hurricane strength before becoming extratropical, according to the discussion:

EPSILON IS LOCATED OVER 25C SSTS… WHICH IS SUFFICIENTLY WARM ENOUGH TO SUPPORT AT LEAST MINIMAL HURRICANE INTENSITY. ALTHOUGH A BANDING EYE-LIKE FEATURE DURING THE PAST COUPLE OF HOURS… THE LOW-LEVEL PRESSURE AND WIND FIELDS APPEAR TO MORE REPRESENTATIVE OF SLOW DEVELOPING SUBTROPICAL CYCLONES. AS SUCH… INTENSIFICATION IS EXPECTED TO BE SLOWER THAN USUAL. HOWEVER… IF THE DEEP CONVECTION CONTINUES TO RAPIDLY INCREASE AROUND THE CENTER… THEN MORE AND EARLIER STRENGTHENING COULD OCCUR THAN WHAT IS FORECAST. THE OFFICIAL INTENSITY FORECAST CLOSELY FOLLOWS THE SHIPS MODEL AND IS HIGHER THAN THE GFDL MODEL.

Ree-markable. The Storm Track has more, including satellite images.

Meanwhile, the remnants of Tropical Storm Delta have killed at least seven people on the Canary Islands:

A wind gust blew a 63-year-old man off the roof he was repairing on Fuerteventura Island, killing him overnight.

Six African illegal immigrants drowned after winds caused their boat to capsize while attempting to reach Gran Canaria. Twelve of the immigrants remained missing while 32 were rescued on Monday.

The storm also caused injuries to several people.

The storm left the islands of La Palma, El Hierro, Gomera and part of Tenerife practically isolated. Hundreds of thousands remained without electricity, including more than 200,000 on Tenerife, 2,000 on Lanzarote, nearly 1,000 on Fuerteventura and hundreds on La Palma.

Another disgruntled 15-inch PowerBook user, who has gone through four machines so far, writes:

I’ve used Macs for 16 years now, and owned my own for 5. I’ve never had any issues, until these new powerbooks, never. All my macs have been rock solid, with any problems arising from my own extreme stupidity. Could it be that these powerbooks were rushed out, with little quality control? Or that Apple’s efforts are more concentrated on iPods? After all, thats where the money is for them. I’d like to think that I just got the few dud ones, and that these are just overly-paranoid conspiracy theories.

Alas, that does not appear to be the case. (Hat tip: Dane.)

My previous posts on the topic are here, here and here.

The Liberal Party government in Canada has officially collapsed, triggering new elections. InstaPundit has various links, including a liveblogging MP.

Two more wins would give USC not its third, but its fourth consecutive national championship, according to one computer-poll guru, Arash Markazi writes. (Hat tip: Boi.)

SI’s John Walters looks at “the great Fiesta debate” and makes a number of intriguing points, including the observation that although Oregon has lost only one game, its two-loss competitors for a BCS bid “all lost by fewer combined points than the Ducks’ 32 to the Trojans.” In fact, if you add up the margins of defeat in all six losses by Notre Dame, Ohio State and Auburn combined, the total — 28 points — is still less than USC’s margin over Oregon. And those six losses include one each to the #1, #2, #3 and #4 teams in the country, so it’s not like Oregon can get away with simply saying “well, yeah our loss was big, but it was to a really good team!” I’m not saying this settles the issue, but it’s certainly food for thought.

Anyway, Walters’s column is worth reading in its entirety — as is Stewart Mandel’s column, which says Notre Dame is heading west:

[A]ll signs indicate the 9-2 Irish are a lock for the Fiesta [Bowl], which sent three representatives — including CEO John Junker — to Saturday’s Notre Dame-Stanford game.

The only question, according to Mandel, is whom the Irish will play: Ohio State, Oregon, or Auburn? Mandel is guessing Ohio State, as am I.

Anyway, Mandel’s assertion that the Irish are almost fcertainly going to Tempe is, if true, very good news for the Loy-Zak wedding guest count. :)

Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) resigned from office today after admitting to taking $2.4 million in bribes from a number of defense contractors. Cunningham has served for many years on the Defense Appropriations commitee.

Cunningham announced earlier this year, in the midst of the investigation, that he would not seek re-election for his 9th term but said that he was innocent. Cunningham was elected in 1990 and represents the 50th legislative district of California which serves north San Diego and its suburbs.

As part of his plea agreement he will forfeit his $2.5 million mansion and $1.8 worth of possesions and cash. He will be sentenced in February, his crimes carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $350,000.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz

You may have noticed that, inspired by Boi From Troy’s “Blogs For Bush,” yesterday I added a “Bush for Heisman” box in the left-hand column.

If StiffArmTrophy.com (formerly HeismanProjection.com) and Heisman Pundit (an excellent source for all manner of college-football blog punditry, BTW) are correct, my effort is unnecessary; Bush is going to win handily. As well he should.

The pundit writes:

It is worthwhile now, with Bush on the verge of winning this year’s Heisman, to look at the amazing run USC has been on when it comes to the most prestigious award in sports.

When Bush wins, it will be the first time ever that a school has won three Heismans in four years.

It will also be just the third time that a school has won Heismans in back-to-back seasons (Army in ‘45-’46 and Ohio State in ‘74-’75 are the others).

USC will tie Notre Dame for most Heismans with seven. The Trojans have won all their trophies since 1965–that’s seven of the last 41 Heismans.

USC will tie Ohio State for most Heismans from the tailback spot with five, though the Trojans will have five winners at that position to the Buckeyes’ four (since Archie Griffin won two). No other position has won more Heismans.

Emphasis added. :)

P.S. This sums up my feelings exactly:

Having seen Vince Young, Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush play in person, I think that it would be utterly ridiculous — no, make that ridonkulous — if Bush doesn’t win the Heisman. Young is fantastic and he will be a Heisman frontrunner (and his Longhorns a preseason No. 1) should he return in 2006. I marvel at how Leinart never makes a bad decision. Ever. He is graceful, throws a beautiful pass, has outstanding footwork and is calm under pressure. But mostly he is both uncannily accurate and he makes the correct read every time. Leinart is actually worthy of a second Heisman. That said, if the Heisman Trophy were not created for a player such as Bush, a player who makes the hair stand on your neck every time he touches the ball, then I don’t know why they even bother awarding it. It’s Reggie Bush, people. Reggie Bush.

Canadian prime minister Paul Martin is in deep trouble. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

This is not exactly breaking news, but it’s news to me: ThinkSecret says Intel-based iBooks are coming in January. (Hat tip: Andrew Leyden.)

Does anyone out there have any experience (or know where I can find reviews from others who do) with the 15-inch PowerBooks that were released in January 2005?

I am seriously thinking about exchanging my second consecutive defective brand-new PowerBook for a refurbished January PowerBook, if I can. Both are 15 inches, which is what I want; both have SuperDrives and backlit keyboards; they have the same processor speed (1.67 GHz); and although the RAM is 512 MB instead of 1 GB, I can always upgrade that. The only real loss would be 20 GB of hard drive space… but that’d be worth it, to get a machine that isn’t defective. Plus, it costs significantly less!

So anyway, I’m wondering… is it a good machine? Does it have any known issues? Its display doesn’t have the weird horizontal lines, does it? Does the 1280 x 854 resolution (as opposed to my current machine’s 1440 x 960) feel restricting?

My PowerBook problems continue. On the plane this morning, the “V” key on the keyboard randomly popped out.

I was able to reattach it… but then it popped out again, a few minutes ago. I reattached it again… but this is not cool. It’s especially uncool in the wake of last night’s screen “flickers” and this morning’s kernel panic and weird AirPort and sound-card behavior. (See here, scroll down.)

Meanwhile, technology blog Engadget now has a post about the horizontal-line problem. (Hat tip: Dane.) I agree with commenter #32:

A lot of people will say these problems don’t exist, just because, well because they don’t notice these problems. At the risk of generalizaing, it’s typically the same crowd who claim 1) 30 fps is the maximum the human eye can see, 2) 60Hz refresh (on a CRT) looks no different than 120Hz, and 3) any resolution above 1024×768 is just too “small”. In short, they’re simply ignorant about the problem.

But it does seem to be real on at least some PBs. I stopped by my campus store this morning and confirmed it on a display model. If you’re perceptive and care about the image quality of your LCD displays, it doesn’t take a magnifying glass and you don’t have to be looking for it to notice it going on.

I also checked out the display models at the Apple Store in Phoenix, and all the 15-inch PowerBooks had the same problem. The 12-inches and 17-inches didn’t.

Anyway, there are now enough problems that, clearly, I am not going to keep this computer. The only question is when I take it back, send it in, whatever. With finals coming up, this is an extremely inconvenient time to not have a laptop. Does anyone know what the relevant deadlines are for out-and-out replacements of defective machines? I have AppleCare, but even so, I’m guessing that if I wait too long, Apple will become less sympathetic to my demand for another new (or perhaps refurbished?) computer.

“I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes.”

(Answer: coherent)

A teacher in Vermont has been accused of giving a ‘liberal’ quiz to students. The above quote is from the quiz in question, which clearly makes certain political assumptions. Despite considering myself fairly liberal, I agree that this teacher stepped over the line; it creates tension and undue discomfort for students who do not share such political leanings, similar to how ‘under God’ or school prayer might to an atheist. Any children who were graded on the test should have it simply removed from their record, and the teacher, who has received a formal conference on the matter, should refrain from inserting personal politics into the curriculum.

Bad teacher, no apple.

[Which brings up another, oft-debated point: what, then, is Intelligent Design? To me, it’s clearly an attempt to influence science education in a way that bolsters religious claims, and by extension (these days, at least) political points.]

Posted by Brian (Briandot)

Becky and I are back in the Midwest, driving from Chicago to South Bend. Just three weeks here, then we head back to Arizona to get married!

Actor Pat Morita passed away late last week. He was 73.

Morita is most famously remembered for two roles. Younger audiences will probably remember him most for his playing Mr. Miyagi, the humorous but wise karate teacher in the Karate Kid series of movies. Older viewers may remember him more for his role dinner owner Arnold from TV’s Happy Days. Morita had a number of other supporting roles in movies and TV as well, primarily in comedy, and even stared in a short lived TV series “Mr. T and Tina”. More recently Morita played the voice of the Emperor of China in Disney’s Mulan.

Morita also guest-starred in a number of popular TV series over the years, including M*A*S*H, Magnum P.I., Sanford and Son, and Baywatch.

Morita was born in California in 1932, the son of migrant fruit pickers. He suffered from spinal tuberculosis at an early age, spending much time in the hospital. Shortly after his recovery he was shipped off to an interment camp during the anti-Asian paranoia of World War II. After the war his family opened a restaurant and Morita began performing comedy for the patrons. Stand up opportunities were rare for Japanese Americans at the time so it was many years before he got the chance to make a living as a comedian and comedic actor, but he had a long and succesful career and his characters were often favorites in each of his appearances.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz

As visitors waited to enter the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC this morning, a chunk of marble broke free and fell on the steps below. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Some students who were there as part of a group to hear oral arguments attempted to take some souvenirs, but were stopped by police. :)

More here.

(Is this some sort of physical manifestation of the recent turnover on the Court? :-P )

Posted by Brian (Briandot)