IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY, but I had too much work to let me run off to the mountains like last week, so I had to settle for a walk around campus. It’s such a beautiful day that it wasn’t too bad a second choice.

I tried to really focus on how the campus is different from when I was in college a bit over 20 years ago. Some things aren’t that different — fashions have come full circle in many departments. The student body, which was then only slightly more female than male, is now considerably more so — I haven’t seen numbers, but I’ve heard that it’s more than 60% female and just walking around that looks plausible. And nearly every one of the female students seems to be talking on a cellphone as she walks. (The men seldom are, so I guess the women are talking to one another).

The population is far more diverse. In particular, there are far more asians — both Americans of asian descent, and in particular actual student-visa asians from China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. I suspect that the same trends apply to most universities.

For those who want to see more pictures (and there are generally some Knoxville expats, or UT alumni, who do), click here, here, here and here.

HERE’S MORE FIRSTHAND REPORTING, this about how Al Jazeera is being received in Iraq.

HERE’S A COLUMN by the Los Angeles Times’ Tim Rutten on the Bee blog brouhaha.

ACCOUNTABILITY DEMANDS CONSEQUENCES. Bill Clinton said it, but the NASA safety board is actually living it, resigning in light of criticism over the Columbia accident.

That’s nine more than resigned from the FBI or CIA after 9/11.

LOOTING UPDATE: When you consider all the attention that Enron got in Europe, it’s interesting that scandals like this one don’t get much attention in the United States:

Four years after a sleaze row destroyed the previous European Commission, prompting its unprecedented mass resignation, the nightmare has returned to haunt its successor. . . .

The case, which was described as the “looting” of Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, uncovered a catalogue of failings and provoked calls for the Spanish commissioner Pedro Solbes Mira – who is ultimately responsible for Eurostat – to resign. . . .

In 1999 the previous Commission was forced to resign en masse after an inquiry concluded it was “becoming difficult to find anyone who has even the slightest sense of responsib-ility”. Four years later no one seems willing to take the rap.

There are differences between the cases, however. In 1999 the allegations were directed against commissioners, notably Edith Cresson who hired her dentist as a scientific adviser.

Maybe this sort of thing just isn’t news because it’s so common?

/ STRASBOURG – A fresh investigation by the EU anti-fraud office, Olaf, has been launched into the European Commission’s technology directorate over alleged systematic theft by officials, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

This contradicts claims made by the Commission yesterday (23 September) that financial irregularities were only present in the EU statistical office, Eurostat.

A confidential letter sent to Commission vice-president Neil Kinnock, seen by the Daily Telegraph, claimed the group’s health unit, C4, had skimmed million of euros through contracts with Greek companies, and claims that alleged abuses at Eurostat were “almost insignificant” by comparison.

The newspaper says that the projects were titled Childcare, Citation, e-Remedy, HealthMarket, D-lab and Pharma among others.

It appears that Unit C4 used “friendly evaluators”, who steered contracts to companies in which they had a financial interest.

I seem to remember a lot of Euro-preening about the superiority of “European-style” capitalism back when Enron was in the news. Is this what they were talking about?

MATT WELCH HAS OBSERVATIONS on the rather unbecoming whining from the Bee’s ombudsman. People disagree with him! The horror!

Heh. He should have to read my email. . . .

DON’T MISS THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES — now with 100% more socialist realism!

Meanwhile Winds of Change has a very useful (and link-rich) roundup of what’s going on in the ‘stans.

A GOOD START TO THE DAY: In yesterday’s mail was a “test pressing” of a CD rerelease by my favorite 1980s rock ‘n’ roll band, The Rainmakers. It’s their first album, but I never got it on CD. I saw them in a hell of a show in Washington, double-billed with the then-unknown Steve Earle, for 5 bucks. (Mickey Kaus was at that show, too, but I didn’t know it at the time). And driving in to work as the fog lifted from the lake along Cherokee Boulevard, it was just too pretty not to take a picture. So, I did.

Now I’m in the office, going through my clogged inbox while Let My People Go-Go plays in the background. Not as nice as the drive in, but not bad.

You’ve got to enjoy stuff like this, because it’s what life’s about. I always knew that, to a degree, but with each passing year that knowledge gets closer to the bone.

UPDATE: You can stream some of the Rainmakers’ tunes here and even see a few videos. And Rainmakers frontman Bob Walkenhorst has a solo album out, though I haven’t heard it yet.

ANOTHER UPDATE: And while I’m mentioning favorite ’80s rock and roll bands, you might want to check out the White Animals’ website. And listen to “Ecstasy,” a song that defines an era.

HERE’S INTERESTING NEWS:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 23 — After five months of foreign military occupation and the ouster of Saddam Hussein, nearly two-thirds of Baghdad residents believe that the removal of the Iraqi dictator has been worth the hardships they have been forced to endure, a new Gallup poll shows.

Despite the systemic collapse of government and civic institutions, a wave of looting and violence, and shortages of water and electricity, 67 percent of 1,178 Iraqis told a Gallup survey team that within five years, their lives would be better than before the American and British invasion.

Hmm. Polls are iffy, and polls in former dictatorships moreso. On the other hand, things are better elsewhere in the country, suggesting that there might actually be more enthusiasm overall. Ambit has links to other polls from Iraq, showing generally similar sentiments.

Wonder if this will get as much prominence on the evening news as a domestic poll showing that 66% of Americans disapproved of the war would. . . .?

UPDATE: Reader Ben Dolfin adds an interesting gloss:

You make a good point about the accuracy of polls in former dictatorships, but you missed an interesting clue. Based on who they pander too with their answers we can tell they know who is in charge and who will be in charge for the forseeable future. I’d be more worried if they still wanted to sacrifice their blood and souls for Saddam, that’d mean they think he’ll be back in charge soon.

So if they’re telling the truth then it’s a good thing, and if they’re lying to us at least they are kissing our butt instead of Saddam’s.

Good point.

BILL HOBBS looks at the seamy side of the record industry. And scroll up for some close readings of speeches by Bush and Rice.

MORE SCENES FROM A MALL: My TechCentralStation column for this week is up. And Megan McArdle has a piece in TCS today, too.

PROBLEMS WITH ELECTRONIC VOTING: Marc Rotenberg has a piece in Technology Review, noting:

Back in the real world, however, the evidence is mounting daily that a lot more work needs to be done before the vote counting process—truly the kernel of democracy—is turned over to devices that lack adequate auditing and operate in secret. One recent study conducted by Johns Hopkins University and Rice University found that the high-tech voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems allowed voters and poll workers to cast extra votes, and also that cryptographic keys, the basic element of system security, were not properly managed. The governor of Maryland has called for an investigation to determine whether the state’s $54 million purchase of these so-called direct recording electronic (or DRE) systems was a wise move.

Another report finds that during San Luis Obispo County’s March 2003 primary in California, absentee vote tallies were sent to an Internet site operated by Diebold several hours before the poll closed. According to election law, officials may not release tallies until voting is completed. An MIT-Caltech study found that regular test forms, which allow for verification, provide higher accuracy than DRE. Considering how much money will be spent in the next year to select the president of the United States, it is remarkable that more money is not being spent to ensure that the new technologies for vote tabulation actually work.

There’s a certain amount of conspiracy-theorizing on this topic (not in Rotenberg’s piece, but in general) but the fact is that electronic voting systems just aren’t up to the job. I don’t know enough to offer an opinion on whether they ever will be, but it seems pretty plain that they aren’t right now.

Here’s more from Salon’s Farhad Manjoo, though you’ll have to sit through an ad to read it if you don’t subscribe. There is a solution, of course. But will public officials be brave enough to endorse this technology?

THE FBI WANTS NOAH SHACHTMAN’S NOTES. He mentions the Vanessa Leggett case — here’s a piece I wrote about that case for the Wall Street Journal last year.

SPACE ELEVATORS: Arthur Clarke has been pushing this idea for years. Now it’s getting some support.

HUGO CHAVEZ IS REFUSING TO RECOGNIZE IRAQ at OPEC. I rather suspect that this will backfire.

NEO-SECESSIONISTS — in the north?

These are The Crazy Years.

MARK GLASER HAS A COLUMN on the whole should-blogs-be-edited question.

Meanwhile, Matt Welch writes that ombudsmen are worthless, and Iberian Notes is close to war with the ombudsman from La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper.

UPDATE: Daniel Drezner has evidence that the Bee ombudsman needs to sort out some issues. Jeez.

Drezner also has some questions for journalist blog-readers as part of a blog-study he’s doing.

FRANK J. HAS FOUND SOMETHING more exciting than poking fun at me — he wants to set up a blog devoted to publishing emails and letters from troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, so that people can hear their voices along with those of the Big Media types.

JAMES MORROW’S BLOG HAS MOVED (AGAIN) to this URL.

HERE’S SOMETHING FROM BUSH’S U.N. SPEECH that doesn’t seem to be getting that much attention:

There’s another humanitarian crisis spreading, yet hidden from view. Each year, an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are bought, sold or forced across the world’s borders. . . .

We must show new energy in fighting back an old evil. Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time.

If you’ll follow the link, you’ll see that Bush spends rather a lot of time talking about this.

UPDATE: A reader sends a link to this National Geographic article on the subject. Excerpt:

There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in its global reach—and in the destruction of lives.

I’m for legalizing drugs to deal with the evils of the “illegal drug trade.” That approach won’t work for slavery, obviously.

UPDATE: Reader Robert Racansky sends a link to Antislavery.org for more information.

ANOTHER MAJOR BLACKOUT, this time in Denmark. Are we actually seeing more of these, or are they just getting more attention?

JOSH MARSHALL FINDS THAT THE TRUTH HURTS. He’s not happy about Democratic Congressman Jim Marshall (whom Josh originally misidentified as a Republican) saying that negative media coverage is getting our troops killed. But Marshall the Congressman, and a Vietnam vet, was there, and thinks negative publicity is encouraging the Baathist holdouts to believe that they can pull a Mogadishu and get the United States to pull out. Marshall the pundit might want to ponder the possibility that reflexive media negativity, counted on by our foes to advance their plans, might actually, you know, advance their plans.

It’s not the reporting of criticisms or bad things that’s the issue — the first-person accounts I link below all have criticisms and negative information. It’s the lazy Vietnam-templating, the “of course America must be losing” spin, the implicit and sometimes explicit sneer, and the relentless bringing to the fore of every convenient negative fact while suppressing the positive ones that’s the issue. It’s what the terrorists are counting on, and it’s what too many in the media are happy to deliver, because they think it’ll hurt Bush.

And it doesn’t get any lower than that.

UPDATE: Reader Richard Aubrey emails: “Do you think the journalist Marshall might want to explain what, factually, is wrong with Rep. Marshall’s statement?” I hope he will.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Henry Hanks observes:

Jim Marshall could very well run to replace Zell Miller in GA and could also very well decide who controls the Senate in 2004… Democrats would be well advised not to drive him too far away…

Especially when he’s, like, right.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan comments, and praises Howard Dean:

In fact, one of the good things about Dean’s campaign has been his clear statement that we need the Iraqi liberation to work.

I agree.

HERE’S ANOTHER FIRSTHAND REPORT FROM IRAQ featuring a lot of stuff we’re not hearing from the big guys.

UPDATE: Read this, too:

There is a sea change going on, right now, and CNN will be the last place to learn about it.

Remember that story early in the war about the Iraqis attacking an Al-Jazeera van and destroying it and wounding its crew? CNN barely covered it, but the Iraqis I have spoken to recently said they are sick and tired of the “old” Arab media (which strangely enough includes Al-Jazeera to them) reporting only the negatives and ignoring the progress they’ve made and the fact that for many, things are better…they see this as other Arabs trying to stir up trouble in “their” country. And they resent it.

They want Al-Jazeera and Manar out of there, and they want to get on rebuilding their country themselves, thank you very much. They don’t need those guys making it worse by running erroneous and unretracted stories like the one a few weeks back about US soldiers raping Iraqi girls– and thereby bringing even more violence. They want a new country.

And here’s some support here for what he says about Iraqis’ dislike of Al Jazeera.

UPDATE: Reader Elizabeth King emails:

I’m not surprised that the media coverage of Iraq is now being reported as unduly negative. I could tell back in June that this year would be the Summer of the Iraqi Quagmire, much as last year was the Summer of Kidnapped Children, and 2001 was the Summer of Shark Attacks.

Like mad dogs and Englishmen, the media spend too much time in the heat of the day … and it shows.

I think they’re spending too much time in hotel bars with former Baathist minders, actually.

HOWARD LOVY has some interesting observations on science journalism that are occasioned by a story on nanotechnology, but that are applicable to lots of other subjects.

UPDATE: His permalinks are busted now. Here’s the site link — just scroll down.

IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T HEARD, the 9th Circuit, en banc, has reversed the panel decision, so the recall is on. Here’s the opinion.

Larry Solum has a big roundup post with comments, quotations, and summaries of the opinion.