Elizabeth McCaughey has gained attention recently as being the source of the “Death Panel” discussions that have brought our news networks to a halt time and time again. Leave it to John Stewart over at The Daily Show to pwn her on national television and cause her to leave her position as the director of Cantel Medical the next day. Congratulations John Stewart: you officially pwn the death panel.

Here’s an excerpt from the press release on Friday, August 21st, 2009:

“CANTEL MEDICAL CORP. (NYSE: CMN – News) announced that on August 20, 2009 it received a letter of resignation from Ms. Elizabeth McCaughey as a director of the Company. Ms. McCaughey, who had served as a director since 2005, stated that she was resigning to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest during the national debate over healthcare reform.”

Resigned? After her performance on The Daily Show, I’m surprised she wasn’t tarred and feathered. John Stewart, yet again, has delivered what other “news correspondents” could not, and publicly debunked most everything the poor woman was trying to say.

Want to see what happened? Check it out.

Part I:

Part II:

Part II – Extended Interview (great stuff here too)

She agreed numerous times to points John Stewart was making in such an absent fashion that the audience could do nothing more than laugh and applaud. She also referred to John Stewart as one would a small dog whilst calling him cute, and “good at arithmetic” in such a Palinesque fashion that I thought a “youbetcha” would erupt at any moment.

Well done John Stewart. Well done.

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Personal coding styles can be a big thing for some people. It can take a while for some people to figure out what styles are their favorite. For instance: I used to code by putting curly braces on their own lines; I have since changed. Unfortunately, I’m constantly coming across my own code (and the code of others) where this coding style is still practiced. For a while I’ve been using a couple of Vim commands to help search and replace for these curly braces quickly and easily. I figured others might be able to use these commands too.

Let’s start with the original code where the curly braces are on their own lines:

if ($this) 
{ 
    dostuff();
} 
else if ($other)
{
    dosomethingelse();
}
else 
{
    dothattoo();
}

Now, we can use one, or a combination of, these commands to reformat the code so the curly braces are not on their own lines. First we have:

%s/)\s*\n\s*{/) {/pg

This command will replace the instances where we have if statements followed by a curly brace on the next line. So, it will turn this:

if ($this) 
{

…into this:

if ($this) {

The next command is:

%s/}\s*\n\s*else\s*\n\s*{/} else {/pg

This will replace the areas where an else statement is in the middle of two curly braces. It will turn this:

}
else 
{

…into this:

} else {

Lastly, we have:

%s/}\s*\n\s*else if (/} else if (/pg

This will help us with the areas where we have else if statements in between two curly braces. It will turn this:

} 
else if ($other)
{

…into this:

} else if ($other) {

So, in the end you get your nicely formatted code:

if ($this) {
    dostuff();
} else if ($other) {
    dosomethingelse();
} else {
    dothattoo();
}

There you go!

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There has been a shooting reported shooting at Radford University. At the building known as “the Bonnie.” The suspect was seen at the Bonnie. The initial shooting is reported to have occurred on Calhoun and Madison.

Students received calls and text messages letting them know that they should seek shelter and that the city was looking for a black male with a do-rag, no shirt, and a camo jacket. I spoke to a University student who is currently seeking shelter in her dorm room at the University. On her way back from the 7-11, there was apparently a long line of cop cars which seemed odd to her, for a Thursday evening. Police have not confirmed what they were investigating but it is almost certain, at this time, that it was a shooting.

She confirmed that a friend of hers was nearby when it occurred and that he was very shaken up by it.

“I can’t believe our school doesn’t send an email out.”

“Think of how many parents are freaking out right now.”

Students and parents are turning to their University web site and finding no information. At this time, both the alert section on the University website and the alert section in the University police website have no alerts of any kind listed.

The shooter is, apparently still loose as students have not received any indication from the University that it is safe to leave their shelter.

“There are still people walking around campus that have no idea. Some people didn’t even get notified.”

More as the story develops.

10:29pm EST: sources say that there was one victim shot nine times and that the suspect was last seen in or near the Bonnie. This has not yet been confirmed by any officials.

10:54pm EST: sources say two more people have been shot, though this has not been officially confirmed. The University still has no information posted to their alerts on their website. News sources say tactical teams were deployed in a couple of University buildings. Students reporting that a building check will be occurring. The initial shooting is reported to have occurred on Calhoun and Madison. Confusion and distress evident as students turn to their University website and find no information.

11:04pm EST: text message received by students form the University:

11:16pm EST: University finally updates their website with alert:

11:24pm EST: no further reports on any additional shootings beyond the first. Currently, one victim was confirmed to be shot in the chest. The victim was taken to the hospital and reports indicate that they did not survive the shooting, though no official word, yet.

12:13am EST: CNN has confirmed the death of the victim in the shooting.

1:30am EST: another update from the University that there are still no sightings of the shooter.

2:53am EST: another txt message update from the University@2:10am EST: