Author: DOuG pRATt

Big Dig vs. Big Hole

Here in the Boston area, the so-called Big Dig has had more than its share of mismanagement, incompetence and outright fraud. The total price for the project, which is mostly done, is about $14 billion; an amount that has been rightly called an outrage and a scandal. How much of that is due to fraud and waste?

In Iraq the overhead for graft and corruption alone is estimated at $10 billion. Money that’s been skimmed right off the top by contractors, including Dick Cheney’s cronies at Halliburton. We need more outrage.

Audit finds $10 billion in fuzzy spending

Inspectors reviewed one-sixth of $350 billion U.S. has spent on Iraq

Dan Duray, Hearst Newspapers
Friday, February 16, 2007

(02-16) 04:00 PST Washington — More than $10 billion of the money paid to military contractors for Iraq reconstruction and troop support was either excessive or unsupported by documents, including $2.7 billion for contracts held by Halliburton or one of its subsidiaries, Congress was told Thursday.

The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for shoddy work or work never done.
Continue reading Big Dig vs. Big Hole

Westfield State Can’t Decide on President

Once again my alma mater, little Westfield State College, is a disappointment. Sigh. As I said a month ago, the school has traditionally had difficulty finding and keeping presidents. And, true to form, the recruiting process is once again bogged down.

Committee extends search for new campus president

By Associated Press
Friday, February 16, 2007 – Updated: 08:43 AM EST

WESTFIELD – Westfield State College is reopening its search for a new president, after a search committee said it can’t agree on a candidate to recommend to the board of trustees.

Banner and Favicon

So, finally, I put up a banner, as I hope you can see above. It’s not the ambitious, evolving comic strip I envisioned, but maybe later. It’s a crop from a photo of my computer monitor. The TV tuner was playing CNN, and the “WHY” on the screen just happened to be there. For emphasis I sharpened the monitor and blurred the wall behind it.

wendall
© DOuG pRATt

A while ago I succumbed to my friend Tom’s interest in seeing a more interesting favicon (pronounced fav icon, like two distinct words). So I did neither dog nor rat, but my walrus character. It was done pixel-by-pixel in the Windows Paint program. The intent was to make it appear as though the walrus was moving out of frame, and to make him seem a bit menacing. Tough to do with 256 pixels, but I think I succeeded.

Star Trek New Voyages

New Voyages

If you don’t yet know about Star Trek New Voyages, click here. My buddy Bismo introduced us to New Voyages, which is but one of several amateur re-creations of the various Trek TV series. I think it’s by far the best.

For more background on the amazing phenomenon of fan-produced Trek TV, click here. While you’re reading that, you can listen to an NPR feature on New Voyages. Here’s the link.

New Voyages banner