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Joe Celko on Trees in SQL using nested sets. Search: linked lists, directed graphs, nested trees, SQL

• SQL Graph Algorithms – comparison of real-world solutions.

“I just picked up a copy and it looks great! You are right about the whole approach and my stuff stinks.” – Joe Celko

• SQLTeam: More Trees & Hierarchies in SQL – the depth and lineage optimizations are exactly what I’ve done in prior implementations
• Joe Celko, DBMS 4 parter (Mar-June 1996):
• A Look at SQL Trees
• SQL Lessons
• Nontraditional Databases
• When Good Data Goes Bad
• PostrgreSQL alpha implementation
• [Newsgroup links]

Semi-related: panelbox.org has Data Modelling links, jwz on message threading

CSS2 Spec, 10.8:

Empty inline elements generate empty inline boxes, but these boxes still have margins, padding, borders and a line height, and thus influence these calculations just like elements with content.

Why then doesn’t line-height work for <br> tags? I’m not quite sure… Hmm, there was some discussion a while back (more: 2000, 2001 on www-style (now with search!).

The simple solution is to just move on a do what works I suppose (display:block; addin margin). But it is bothersome.

Hixie has some styling tests in his Evil Tests: Styling HR, BR Elements.

If <br> has been traditionally treated as generated content and not an empty, non-replaced, inline element, maybe in that context (or others), something like <line> does make sense.

CNN: Ex-CIA director: U.S. faces ‘World War IV’

It will be America’s backing of democratic movements throughout the Middle East that will bring about this sense of unease, he said.

“Our response should be, ‘good!'” Woolsey said.

I’d be happy if there was some backing of democratic movements here at home.

Jim Moore (Berkman Center, Harvard), writes about the rise of a global social movement (read: Internet) as a “second superpower” (see fallout) that can keep the US (gov’t) in check. Interesting read, but well, it doesn’t work right now because people have a lot more in common with sheep than ants.

He does address the fundamental problem with all democracy, though. It depends upon educated informed members. A quick check at the national polls will show why the US is so dysfunctional. How many people can pinpoint Iraq on a map? How many people believe that Saddam Hussein is directly responsible for the WTC? What’s the most popular News channel? How many know, let alone care about the civil rights they’ve lost? And lastly, how many people believe exactly what they are told?

I slipped in some transparency back on my site. This apparently slows scrolling to a crawl. A new design should be going up soon anyway, so should be a temporary thing.

Alain’s Epson 9600 Diary – sharing his experience w/ this large format printer. Also, be sure to check out the latest at Luminous Landscape, some good links, including a Foveon/Sigma SD9 and Canon 1DS analysis (30MB PDF).

Poynter Online: Media Map of Iraq – A bird’s-eye view of where journalists are

Slate: The War on the Web

What were we saying about religious fanatics?

Bush believes he was called by God to lead the nation at this time, says Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a close friend who talks with Bush every day. His history degree from Yale makes him mindful of the importance of the moment. He knows he’s making ”history-changing decisions,” Evans says. But Bush doesn’t keep a diary or other personal record of the events that will form his legacy. Aides take notes, but there’s no stenographer in most meetings, nor are they videotaped or recorded.

Looks like they were right.

“We have to avoid a clash of civilizations at all costs,” French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine said on Sunday. “One has to avoid falling into this huge trap, this monstrous trap” which he said had been “conceived by the instigators of the assault.”

But this is exactly what it seems the administration wants.

Syria’s Assad Criticizes U.S. ‘Lack of Foresight’:

“If a small country made a mistake it might affect its neighbors, but if a superpower committed a mistake it would threaten the whole world.

“The disquieting reality that we see is the reality of the world and that of the world’s greatest country,” he said.