Cup of Java

Things found around the net
Where is Raed?- Blogger from Baghdad. Hope he makes it though. Definitely worth a read if you're at all interested in what is going on/will be going on in the world. It's amazing some of the comments on there too. What being done to try to keep communications open for the Iraqis from the outside...it's impressive. One reader claims to do all he/she can to keep the blog up and running. Go them. (via blog of note on blogger.com)

Dumbest Moments in Business 2002- Some of these are rather amusing. Others just make you shake your head. (via clay at adtothebone.com)

Michael Moore writes a letter to GWB- Talk about bringing up good points. Here's his first one- " There is virtually NO ONE in America (talk radio nutters and Fox News aside) who is gung-ho to go to war. Trust me on this one. Walk out of the White House and on to any street in America and try to find five people who are PASSIONATE about wanting to kill Iraqis. YOU WON'T FIND THEM! Why? 'Cause NO Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us! No Iraqi has even threatened to do that. You see, this is how we average Americans think: If a certain so-and-so is not perceived as a threat to our lives, then, believe it or not, we don't want to kill him! Funny how that works!" Funny how logic works. For more also check out his "Operation Oily Residue".

Gallup poll says the public approves of Bush ultimatum by more than 2-to-1 margin- Of course, as with any poll you have to look at how the data is gathered. Here's their survey methods for this one- "Results are based on telephone interviews with 776 national adults, aged 18+, conducted March 17, 2003. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls." How can you take a good sampling of the population if you are only interviewing 776 people in a populus that is *much* greater than that? And why 776? It seems like an odd number as well - I mean why not 1000 or 700 or something?