I’m so glad it’s Friday. I’ve had enough of this week. I’m so happy it’s Friday I could just get right up and dance.

Now, we certainly don’t want to be in the habit of posting insensitive or just plain false information here about anything having to do with the recent terrorist attacks. To that end, I submit this link only as an interesting phenomena.

It seems that some scientists at Princeton have some measuring tools in various places around the world that generate random number sequences all the time. They then collate these numbers to see if there is a coalescence between the different measuring tools during world events or even national events. They have posted their data for others to read through and decide if or why these random number generators may have generated similar information right at the moment the attacks occurred.

I was reading young Mr. Hylton’s post over at Public Realm about how he’s “for peace” and though I don’t totally agree, this excerpt caught my eye:

“And it has been stated by Russian soldiers who invaded Afghanistan in the late 70s that we will probably not find well-marked terrorist camps to bomb. The terrorists will likely be in villages with their families and civilians. It is frightening to think of how messy this could be.”

It had me thinking one thing: Vietnam.

I love Starbucks. It’s about the only thing from Seattle that I do love. But they get the Llama Award for the Day. Hell, we may have to extend it to Llama Award of the Month.

Ambulance workers in New York rushed into a nearby Starbucks store to get water to treat shock victims right after the September 11 terrorist attack. Employees insisted the ambulance workers pay for the three cases of bottled water. The rescue workers, in their quick desperation emptied their own pockets and paid in cash for the water.

Starbucks has since apologized saying such behavior is inconsistent with how they want their employees to act. To help head off any fallout, Starbucks has made a $1 million donation to the September 11th Fund. They also donated 14 items to eBay’s Auction for America. I would have hoped that they would have made such donations whether they fucked up or not.

We said that we might not be quite as cynical on this site as in the past, but when I see this headline “Taliban invites Jesse Jackson to broker peace” on CNN, I get a little perturbed. I can’t believe that anyone in the Taliban would even be able to stomach this man. These are people that cut off hands for stealing and sterilize women for adultery, if they don’t execute them.

But of course, Jesse is a man. And adultery in men is probably something this Taliban has no problems with. When will other countries and even the people of America realize that Jesse Jackson is no better than the rest of us. Sure, he’s a reverend. Where does he preach? What’s his job? How does he get paid? This man is milking America’s religious and racial sympathies fuel his continued flaunted existence.

If President Bush let’s Jesse Jackson be some “peace moderator” with the people who harbor our country’s greatest enemy, then I guess we’ll see the true colors of both men. Jesse Jackson is as much a man of peace as General Patton. Strap this logic to your throat and try to slowly: Does a man who makes his living brokering peace truly want peace? Wouldn’t he be making himself obsolete?

It’s the same reason Microsoft doesn’t make the perfect OS. It’s not that they can’t, they don’t want to because then you wouldn’t ever buy anything else. It’s the same with the car companies. Jesse Jackson capitalizes on the weakness and sympathies of the most downtrodden. Someone please give me an example of anything he has ever done to TRULY help someone without thought of or benefit to himself.

I’ll be honest, I have been spending a lot of free time reading and following my fantasy football team.

I have been consumed with visiting various fantasy football forums, as well as reading the latest updates on all the players.

Not only that but I have sorting and resorting the stats until I feel like any player would be good for my team. That’s a bad feeling.

Certainly, in these post-attack times, I need some diversion, but then I wonder if the world is really a better place when I wake the baby in the apartment next door screaming, “Bubba Franks scores! Bubba Franks scores!” I figure that’s right about the team I shoudl be swatted down by Karma’s massive hand.

A few days ago, the largest pilot’s union requested the FAA allow pilots to carry sidearms and have the power of arrest while in the air. Today the FAA announced they are actually considering it. The FAA says they must “challenging every assumption” on which the agency has ever operated while considering safety improvements, including arming pilots with sidearms.

Thus far I have heard a number of ideas regarding making planes safer. Everything from putting Air Marshals on every plane to installing new cockpit doors. The best idea I think I have heard so far is completely sealing off the pilot from the rest of the plane. The pilots would have their own entrance to the plane that is separate from the passengers and only accessible from the outside. That brings about other issues though. What if there was a cockpit fire? No one could get inside to help.

A co-worker joked that when passengers get on a plane everyone should be given a gun. Yes, a hijacker would also have a gun but so would the 60 other people in the plane. With 60 guns, someone is going to shoot him.

Tell me what safety features you would like to see in our skies.

We have decided that we are now going to go back to our normal format, after having only a Red Cross page up for over a week. I think that in light of what happened, some of our humor may change. It’s liable to be less cynical. Who knows. We are all finding ways to cope with what happened.

We have a slew of articles we want to write about this. That will take another day or two to finish before they are posted. But we each have unique takes on all of this from different angles. Of course, you’ll all have the opportunity to discuss/argue/laugh at/ignore our points on our forums.

We plan on returning to our normal daily news postings tomorrow, Sept 25.

There will be no humor today. It wouldn’t be right for us to participate in our normal news commentary in light of the hellish events that happened yesterday. A friend of my wife worked in the WTC, but luckily he had overslept and hence was clear of the whole event.

But there is something you can do. Yes, you the farmer in Iowa, the college student in Oregon, the vet in Texas. After you donate blood, you can visit Amazon.com and donate some money to a disaster relief fund they have set up. Just $1. And it will help.

There is something in us Americans that is untouchable by even the largest bomb or the cruelest act. Our flag still stands.