I thought this kind of stuff only happened in the UK..

The [U.S.] bureau [of the Census] contracted with Harris Corp. in 2006 to pay more about $600 million for a system that included 500,000 handheld devices to be given to census takers in 2010 to gather information from the millions of people who don’t return their mailed forms. The devices were intended to verify all residential addresses in the nation using GPS, collect and transmit the data from the uncounted, and manage the workflow in the field. Unfortunately, in a scenario familiar to most valley engineers, there was a disconnect between contractor and client over the specs. In a test last year in North Carolina, the computer’s interface ended up leaving workers baffled and confused, and initially the units couldn’t transmit the large amounts of data required. At one point, said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, the government had some 400 new or clarified technical requirements on its feedback list for Harris. The costs kept climbing, helped along by gross miscalculations. Initially the bureau and Harris agreed that $36 million would cover a help desk for field workers using the handhelds; on further reflection, that figure is now up to $217 million. At a March hearing, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said, “What we’re facing is a statistical Katrina on the part of the administration.”

Yesterday came the final blow. Gutierrez told Congress that the whole computer initiative has been called off for the coming census and that the bureau would hire 600,000 temporary workers to do the job with pencil and paper. The expensive handhelds will be used for address verification, but that’s all. She blamed the problem on “a lack of effective communication with one of our key contractors,” while Harris cited the bureau’s ever-shifting specifications. Bottom line, the government will still buy 151,000 of the computers and associated service from Harris, but now the cost has risen to $1.3 billion. That and the related changes will push the cost of the census from what was already a record $11 billion to more than $14 billion. And the census count — with billions in government spending dependent on its accuracy — will still be conducted in crude manual fashion.

… in 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39.

This evening, small groups of people could be seen following signs like this

placed strategically round a Cambridge college. They were heading for the launch of Rose’s first novel.

It was an interesting gathering. Her publisher and agent both remarked on how different it was from a standard London-based book launch. For one thing, everyone turned up early. For another, most seemed glad to be offered a glass of wine. There was an intriguing mix of techies (Quentin’s mates: Rose is his wife), legal types (Rose is an academic lawyer), friends and family. A chap from Heffers (Cambridge’s longest-established academic bookshop) was there too — and sold 45 copies on the night.

… in 1948, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries. [That’s upwards of $100 billion in today’s money.] It was an extraordinary act of enlightened self-interest which enabled a democratic, pluralist Europe to arise from the chaos and destruction of 1945. Nobody who was in Germany in 1945 could envisage that a prosperous liberal democracy could be built on such shattered foundations. And yet it was.

And the deliberations within the Truman government (especially the State Department) which led to the Plan provide an instructive comparison with the gibberings of the fanatical ‘war lite’ neo-cons who planned and executed the fiasco in Iraq. Marshall, Acheson, Kennan & Co were serious people.

And to think that — according to the Nobel laureate Joe Stiglitz — Iraq has already cost upwards of three trillion dollars. Ye Gods!

Well, well. Bertie Ahern, the well-known sterling magnet, has decided to step down. His statement says (after an interminable prologue about his magnificent achievements) that

It is a matter of real concern to me that the important work of government and party is now being over shadowed by issues relating to me at the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments. The constant barrage of commentary on Tribunal related matters has and I believe will continue to dominate the political agenda at an important point for our country.

We face uncertain economic times and challenges and we are soon to cast our vote on the Lisbon Treaty. The vital interests of Ireland demand that the national dialogue of our political system address these fundamental issues and not be constantly deflected by the minutiae of my life, my lifestyle, and my finances.

The decision I am announcing today — like all other decisions that I have taken in a lifetime in politics – is solely motivated by what is best for the people.

He goes on to say that he has “no doubt that a simplistic analysis will suggest that my decision has been influenced by most recent events at the Tribunal”.

Simplistic, my eye. Last Saturday’s Irish Times had a scarifying analysis of all the money that has cascaded into his many bank accounts over the years.

So that’s one down. Now for Robert Mugabe…