Vastly Important Notes

This headline is poorly worded

Having trouble getting my head around the events in New Orleans, I resort to taking cheap shots at the harrowing media coverage.

On a somewhat more hopeful note, this feels like the time in a disaster's lifecycle when fatality estimates go from being severely understated to generally overstated.  Remember when 25,000 people were though to have died on 9/11?  I'm hopeful that the current talk of "thousands" of fatalities will prove to be similarly inflated, but Katrina has already proven the optimists wrong.

Understanding vs. groking

Every time I've ever been to New Orleans (which is my favorite U.S. city to go to for conventions), some local or tour guide or waiter would say, "You know, New Orleans is completely below sea level.  One day the levee is gonna break, the pumps will get flooded and we'll just become another lake with nowhere for the water to go."  It's remarkable how something could be so completely expected and yet still so shocking when it finally happens.

Important reminder

September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.  That is all.

9-11 brand laser toner

I found this box in the office.  Apparently we were returning it to the manufacturer because it was defective.  There is no indication of where this product was made, but I kind of hope that it was outside of the U.S.  Click on the thumbnails for a bigger image so you can read the text.  I don't really have anything else to say.

On second thought, horrible bad taste and shameless marketing aside, asking snarky questions about this kind of thing is my patriotic duty, so here goes:

1. The box claims that this is an "American Spirit Compatible Laser Toner Cartridge".  Does this mean that it's compatible with the American spirit or with "American Spirit" brand printers?  I've got an HP, so the latter would be a problem for me.

2. The globe cradled in the American flag on the front of the box is centered on the south pole.  Why?

3. The back of the box has "9-11-01" written in a very large font, but the numbers are slightly grayed out.  Is this a subliminal message or a problem with your box printer toner?

4. The text starts with, "We can never forget the tragedy of September 11, 2001, with the terrorist attacks upon our nation."  Is that because we keep being reminded of it by our laser toner boxes? Also, does that sentence helpfully include the year and a brief synopsis of what actually happened on 9-11 just in case someone was beginning to forget?

5. The hyper-cursive text at the bottom says, "Box Design & Concept is an Inspiration and Tribute to all our heroes of 9-11."  How many people do you feel were inspired to heroism by your box design? Also, how do you decide which words to capitalize?

6. The box has three direct mentions of 9-11, three American flags, two flag ribbons and one bald eagle.  Did you forget to add more bald eagles?

7. The side panel points out that, "Every cartridge that is thrown away adds more waste to our already overburdened landfills."  Do you think that this is part of the overall terrorist plan, or is environmentalism a completely separate worthy cause that you aim to inspire and trivial tributize?