Just Tell Me When It's Done

Not to suggest that over two hundred people missing is not important, but can we please stop dedicating half of the news cycle to it? Honestly, since the plane went missing there has only been about five minutes worth of news, yet it is taking up at least five hours of the news cycle every day. Increasing the irritation is the fact that so often the latest news on the topic is exaggerated to absurdity by people who obviously lack an understanding of what they are talking about.
I may not be old enough to remember 'the good old days of news,' but I can still imagine of a better time than this. So really, just let me know when we reach the conclusion, because these day-long pit stops along the way are mind-numbing.

Not the best week

Hasn't been the best week for me. In the past few days I have had an event cancelled on me at the last minute, messing with my schedule quite a bit, and some hardware fail on me. Fortunately I've managed to find a solution to the failure that should be acceptable. It just is going to take some time to get right.
All I got this week. I know it isn't much, but it's better than nothing.

Is Email Dead?

This is something I have been wondering for a while actually. Is email dead? I know I still use it, but it seems like a lot of people/organizations do not. Very regularly whenever I email some entity I do not get a reply, even the 'Contact Us' email addresses posted on some websites. I have to wonder why this is. The first makes little sense, because of how valuable a communication medium email is (unlimited length, software agnostic, hardware agnostic, private (in theory), attachments). The second is just disrespectful. I am actually almost to the point of making a Twitter account just to test some people/places. Send a question both as email and Twitter post, and see which is responded to first. I suspect the Twitter post would be, but then the questions are why and if/when the email will get a reply. If both addresses are given for a means of communication, but only one is responded to, that would seem to be a great failing on the part of the recipient(s).
Sadly, I doubt anyone would care, including the failing persons.

If I recall My History...

Right now it is fairly hard to turn on any news channel or check a news website and not have something about the possibility of attacking Syria thrown in your face, at least if you live in the US and/or are checking a US news site. A lot of it is one side saying we should because there is a moral imperative, while the other says the American people do not want to be involved. If I remember what I learned in school correctly, that other side is much more correct than the side claiming a moral need.
If you consider what has happened int he world during the history of the United States, you will find numerous examples of genocide and genocide-like tragedies that we did nothing about. The reasons for that largely stem from our disinterest in intervening in another countries affairs, outside of normal political operations. Even when we know about the genocide, we want to leave it alone and be left alone. Look at modern North Korea, where people are starving under they tyrannical, communist regime. Look in modern Egypt where Christians are being murdered and churches burned. I'm sure there are many other nations in Africa that are also suffering similar tragedies, but I cannot name them. Look to the past though and you can find even more genocide and genocide-like tragedies that we did nothing about. Stalin of the USSR starved millions of Ukrainians to death during the Holodomor, and we did nothing. Even the Holocaust under Hitler did not lead us to take action, and we did know some of what was going on there. That is part of the reason why, at the time, many people did want to go to war, to stop Hitler and what he would do to Europe, but they knew the American people detest war, so it took the war coming to us to ultimately force any direct action.
You can take the point I am trying to make one of two ways. Either America does not have an interventionist history, because the people did not want it then and do not want it now, or that if we are to claim the existence of a morale obligation, we have a lot of work to do to satisfy it.