Is the Internet a Fundamental Right? [Poll]

Engadget has an interesting poll up: is the internet a fundamental right?

Their writeup has some results by country which I found rather fascinating. Hopefully they will analyze their results the same way. In the meantime, go vote.

Technorati Tags: Freedom, Fundamental Rights, Internet

TSA Forces Disabled 4yo to Remove Braces and Walk

Your government dollars at work, via Boing Boing: TSA forces travelling policeman to remove his disabled four-year-old son's leg-braces.

Philadelphia TSA screeners forced the developmentally delayed, four-year-old son of a Camden, PA police officer to remove his leg-braces and wobble through a checkpoint, despite the fact that their procedure calls for such a case to be handled through a swabbing in a private room. When the police officer complained, the supervising TSA screener turned around and walked away. Then a Philadelphia police officer asked what was wrong and "suggested he calm down and enjoy his vacation."

Who thought it was a good idea to make these people civil servants? Oh yeah. Democrats.

Technorati Tags: TSA, Government Employed Gestapo, Sinecure Civil Servants

Why to Do It Right the First Time

Boston’s Big Dig project is famous for cost overruns and poor construction, which led to a ceiling collapse in July 2006 that killed one, injured another and contributed to the death of a third. The cause of the collapse was determined to be “inappropriate use of an epoxy anchor adhesive” which caused 26 tons of concrete and associated suspension hardware to fall.

According to a show on the Discovery channel:

The cost of the epoxy used in the D Street portal construction was $1,287.60. The price tag for redesigning, repairing and inspecting all the tunnels after the ceiling collapse in the D Street connector reached 54 million dollars.

And that is why you do things right the first time. Especially where lives are concerned.

Tidbits

"Polish Anne Frank" is the name being given to Rutka Laskier, a 14-year-old Jewish girl that kept a diary as she was trapped in a Jewish ghetto. The author is believed to have been killed upon arrival at Auschwitz. The 60-page memoir has been kept safe by a friend of the girl and recently turned over.

Mass Holocaust Grave Found in the Ukraine with the remains of thousands of Jews killed in a concentration camp.

Nazi War Criminal Found in Spain. Fredrik Jensen, 93, was a member of the dreaded SS and was awarded the Gold Cross by Hitler himself. After reading passages from Rutka's diary, I have no pity for him.

Teleportation Record was set by physicists when sending data 89 miles (ten times the previous record) between telescopes on neighboring islands using "spooky" photons. Advancements in this arena won't result in the "beam me up" technology usually associated with teleportation in the post-Star Trek world, but scientists hope to be able to send sensitive information via satellite using unbreakable "quantum cryptography". [via Slashdot]

RIAA Takes a Loss in the infamous Atlantic v. Andersen case in which the music industry went after a disabled single mother of a 9-year-old for sharing songs like "Hoes in my Room" over Kazaa, pressing forward in the face of mounting evidence that there was no case to pursue. The RIAA has finally agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning they have completely exonerated Anderson and are open to Andersen's countersuit which accuses the industry of racketeering, fraud, and deceptive business practices, among other things. [via Digg]

From Tequila to Dyslexia

Tequila Prices to Rise: Blame US Gov.: The artificial demand for ethanol driven by the US government's wrong-headed solution to dependence on foreign oil is causing Mexican farmers to burn their agave fields so they can plant corn for ethanol production. The agave plant takes eight years to mature. Say goodbye to bargain prices on Patrón (better stock up now!).

American Traitor Returns: American al-Qaeda member Adam Yehiye Gadahn, the first American to be charged with treason since 1952, appeared in a seven-minute video in which he demanded that we leave all Muslim lands or "experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan and Iraq and Virginia Tech."

This is Gadahn's fifth video appearance on behalf of al-Qaeda. He is one of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists and believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Screw bin Laden, it's time we found this guy home-grown terrorist.

Ecoterrorist Gets 3 Years: Speaking of terrorists, Canadian 'animal rights' activist Darren Thurston, 37, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for helping the Animal Liberation Front set fire to federal wild horse corrals in Northern California. When are we going to quit coddling terrorists? Should've been ten years at a minimum.

Conspiracy Theory: Daniel Pipes reviews a book that offers the intriguing theory that the Six-Day War originated in the Kremlin as a plot to scuttle Israel's nuclear program. The Jews screwed everything up when they whipped the ass of three Arab nations in just six days. Gotta love 'em!

Bush the Neoliberal: WaPo's Richard Cohen obviously has not been paying attention; he is just now waking up to Bush's liberal tendencies.

Global Warming Windfall: A New Zealand farmer has signed a 120-year contract in which he receives $1 million for doing absolutely nothing. He sold his rights to the carbon dioxide on his heavily-vegetated land to a mining company. All he has to do is not cut down trees to run cattle on his land. Anyone want to pay me for not blogging? Anyone?

We are Born to be Generous: Yet another study, this one indicating that being generous "lights up" the same part of the brain that responds to food and sex. That is, we do it because it feels good:

The results are showing many aspects of morality appear to be hard-wired in the brain, opening up a new window on what it means to be good.

'Addictive' Semen: Speaking of studies, there was one that found that women who don't use condoms during sex are less depressed and less likely to attempt suicide than women who have no exposure to semen (either by using condoms or by abstinence). One of the authors of the study also found that women who don't use condoms get increasingly depressed as more time passes since their last sexcapade, leading him to believe that there may be a chemical dependency to semen.

Reminds me of an Alice Cooper tune:

Man's got his woman
To take his seed
He's got the power - oh
She's got the need

Prof. Says No Such Thing as Dyslexia: An educational psychologist says that after 30 years of research, he can find no evidence that dyslexia is a medical condition and believes that those so diagnosed should be re-classified as having reading difficulty. He says that there is a "huge stigma attached to low intelligence" and that this stigma is avoided when parents get their child diagnosed with a medical condition.

From French Whiners to NY Idiots

French Workers Biggest Whiners: That, according to a study of workplace attitudes around the world. The Irish complained the least (probably still drunk from the previous night's pub crawl). Also among the "happy workers" were Thai workers (just happy to actually have a job) and the Dutch (I'd be happy too if I had legalized drugs and prostitution).

The Great Skittles Caper: A quarter-million dollars worth of Skittles and the tractor-trailer they were in were stolen. Do you think having so many different color victims will qualify it as a "hate crime"? [Via Digg]

The World's Dirtiest Cities: Not too many surprises here. Prepare for the Gorebot to object because Bush's Houston isn't listed (remember that from the election of 2000?). Then again, neither is Gore's greenhouse gas generating complex that he calls home.

Japanese Teen Severs Mom's Head: The 17-year-old carried it into a police station in a sports bag. I guess the pressure of choosing between flowers or chocolate for Mother's Day was just too much for the boy. [Via Digg]

Disabled Sprinter has Unfair Advantage: That is the claim being examined by the I.A.A.F. (and the Olympic committee) because South African Oscar Pistorius has springy carbon fiber blades instead of feet. This is leading to lots of discussion about cyborgs and the definition of "foot". Honest.

Man Buys House, Complete with Corpse: A Spanish bank repossessed a house due to six years of missed mortgage payments and auctioned it off without taking the time to go inside. Buyer Jorge Giro purchased the house without bothering to go inside. The result was that when he entered his new home for the first time he found the mummified remains of the previous owner. Gives a whole new meaning to "Buyer Beware."

Darwin Nods: New York teen Damion Mosher saw a business opportunity: brass shell casings were garnering $1.70 a pound and he just happened to have access to a bunch of .223 bullets. So he set about turning bullets into empty shell casings using a steel vise, a screwdriver and a hammer. Clever, eh?

Predictably, he took a bullet to the abdomen. It was not clear whether or not it was a ricochet, although it only penetrated a half inch and he was treated and released. One can't help but wonder if the tragedy is the wound or the fact that he will live to reproduce.

News Roundup

Government Guidelines Suck: Those charts that pediatricians and mothers obsess over to determine the "normality" of a baby's weight are wrong — dangerously so. The most popular chart was produced by the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) 30 years ago, but was based on white, middle-class babies from Ohio raised on high-protein formula milk. This has led to decades of wrongly classifying lean but healthy babies as underweight, millions of mothers overfeeding their babies and setting them on the path to obesity.

Another billion for Katrina: the Bush administration has extended government-subsidized housing for 120,000 'evacuees' until March 2008. Then they will have to pay $50 a month for the housing, with the price going up another $50 each month that they stay.

Huckabee's son arrested: David Huckabee packed a loaded Glock and tried to carry it through airport security.

$4,200 snails: A rare snail was discovered on a ridgeline where a New Zealand mining company was trying to dig for coal. As it was believed that only 500 to 1,000 snails existed, the company decided to pay for the cost to relocate, monitor and protect the molluscs. After 19 months, 5300 snails have been found (and relocated) and between production loses and snail expenses, the company is out $22.4 million (or a little over $4,226 per snail).

Note that these are in a species that includes large carnivorous snails. Who the hell wants to save carnivorous snails?

Missile defense victory: The program to develop a missile defense shield scores another victory: the Navy's Aegis system successfully and simultaneously destroyed a cruise missile and a short-range ballistic missile during a test.

Oregon Senate bans confining pregnant pigs: Really.

Bits Here 'n There

The Supreme Court signaled that it may revisit McCain-Feingold, perhaps gutting it when it does. Too bad this won't happen in time to affect McCain's run at the presidency.

Holy crap, Hillary's getting desperate! She actually admitted that it might be necessary to take on Iran . . . militarily.

Moderate Muslims are trying to take a stand against Islamofacism, but tax-break PBS won't give them air time:

"Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center" highlights the work of moderate Muslims who oppose the Islamist agenda and are willing to speak out. PBS officials decided against airing the film, which PBS's Robert MacNeil told the Diane Rehm Show earlier this month was "one-sided" and "alarmist."

Some of the key Muslim figures featured in the documentary believe PBS is practicing censorship and doing a disservice to the American public. The film, which was supposed to be part of a PBS series, cost taxpayers more than $600,000.

A police officer is assaulted once every 20 minutes in Britain.

Since 2002, there have been 127,000 assaults on police officers in England, Scotland and Wales. This is equivalent to five out of every six officers being assaulted at least once in the last five years.

Here's a scientific advancement for you: there is now a mathematical formula to predict how the head on a glass of beer changes over time.

Sitting Hummingbird

 

You don't usually see these guys sitting around, but this baby hummingbird likes to rest on a Ficus tree after drinking from one of our hummingbird feeders.

Early morning roundup

Today's must read: Jonah Goldberg makes the case for extremism.

Today's other must read: Wounded Iraq veteran: 'I'd go back in a heartbeat'. A touching story that highlights the high cost paid by our soldiers; severe wounds are life-changing events.

Semper Fi:

Despite four years of tough combat deployments, the U.S. Marine Corps has retained a higher percentage of top recruits.

The Center for Naval Analyses in April analyzed the Marines' first term re-enlistment population and determined that the quality has continually improved over the last six years, with more first tier recruits remaining in the Marine Corps than drop out after four years.

Return of the Gorebot: Al Gore is reving up the rhetoric, perhaps for a presidential run, but if he does run he is alienating the center by calling the current administration "a renegade band of rightwing extremists".

Today's Understatement: A Washington Times op-ed talks about China's involvement in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, as it "[pursues] raw materials and natural resources, particularly energy resources, with a narrow-minded mercantilist drive." Money quote:

Given China's established pattern of military development discordant with its stated goal of a peaceful rise in the world, Washington needs to scrutinize both China's ambitions and its tactics.

Homeland Defense: A security guard was so absorbed with his hand held video game (a "mind-stimulating activity" allowed under the rules) that he failed to see an inspector approach during a surprise inspection. Repeatedly. I feel so safe.

France: There's rioting again in the suburbs of Paris, only this time the kids are wearing masks and carrying baseball bats.

Iraq: The Brits say that foreign terrorists, led by fighters from Saudi Arabia, are the reason for an upsurge in attacks against their troops in Basra.

Iran: Having watched the "insurgency" in Iraq, Iran is preparing for a US invasion by war gaming "irregular warfare carried out by highly mobile army units". Ironically, they are also trying to develop techniques to quell insurgencies due to "ethnic unrest" and "foreign influence".

Pedophiles in Holland are establishing their own political party in order to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and legalize possession (but not distribution) of child pornography. Oh yeah, and sex with animals should be allowed everybody should be able to go naked in public.

South America: Venezuela is spending billions on helicopters, boats and military transport planes in an effort to modernize its military. Meanwhile, Bolivian opposition leaders believe that "Venezuela is sending arms and military personnel to organize a special militia for the ruling Movement to Socialism (MAS)." On the other hand:

Leftist President Evo Morales said Tuesday the U.S. government had organized groups to kill him and said he believed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's assertion that Washington was preparing to overthrow his administration.

Zimbabwe:

Human Rights Group Amnesty International released satellite images today showing the obliteration of a large community during last year's settlement clearances in Zimbabwe that made some 700,000 people homeless.

Science: Some scientists have long believed that there is a fourth spatial dimension, but a new study suggests that hidden dimensions could create thousands of mini-black holes within our own solar system. They hope to go looking within a few years using a satillite that NASA will launch next year.

2 am Quick Hits

Border Wall Gaining Popularity in Mexico: The New York Times reports:

A growing number of elected officials and immigration experts [in Mexico] have begun to argue that a fortified border could dissuade undocumented immigrants from their perilous journeys across the Sonora desert, stemming the death toll and incidents of abuses by smugglers and corrupt law enforcement officers.

While the sentiment expressed is true, I doubt that the feelings are too widespread. After all, in some villages, mariachi music and feasts are customary sendoffs for those heading north.

Voting for Dollars: An initiative in Arizona would enter every voter in an election into a drawing for one million dollars. This is to encourage people to vote. What we should be concentrating on is encouraging people to know the candidates and issues so they can vote intelligently. Then again, if we did that the Democrat Party would vanish in a puff of smoke.

Poor Little Cork Critters: Bleeding heart alert!

Up to three quarters of the unique cork oak forests of the Mediterranean could be lost within 10 years because of the increasing popularity of the screw-top wine bottle.

The move away from traditional stoppers made of cork threatens the survival of one of Europe's most important wildlife habitats, according to a study by the conservation group WWF.

This is one area in which I have very strong opinions, being a wine drinker. Corks fail, leading to cork taint. Five percent, 24 percent, even 33 percent of all bottles of wine are "corked". In my experience, it is at least 20 percent.

Screw the cork forests. When I pay 10 to 25 bucks for a bottle of wine, it had better not have gone bad. If I wanted wine that smells of mouldy cardboard, I'd make it myself. Or drink a glass while standing next to a Frenchman.

Even Better Glenlivet: By law, stills in Scotland must be at least 40 gallons. But Glenlivet has received special permission to recreate a still from 200 years ago that was used to make contraband whisky:

The Glenlivet spirit, a Speyside malt, was renowned throughout Scotland and England. Such was its quality and reputation that during a visit to Scotland in 1822 King George IV requested a dram and is reported to have said he would drink nothing else from then on.

Now The Glenlivet distillery in Ballindalloch, Banffshire, has been given special dispensation by the "excisemen" to bring the original taste back to life. The Glenlivet, which is the top malt in the US and number two in Scotland, yesterday tried to turn back the clock two centuries by using a specially designed "small still" to produce the legendary whisky.

The "small still" will only have a capacity of 12 gallons. Sounds expensive.

I must have some!

Feds Reject Spotted Owl Protection: Tree huggers suffered another defeat in their fight to stop commerce in America, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected a petition to put the California spotted owl back on the Endangered Species list:

The petition's denial was based in part on the recommendation of scientists commissioned to study the owl, said Steve Thompson, manager of the agency's California-Nevada operations office.

They found that fires that creep through excessive brush and eventually consume the old-growth forests the owls prefer are their main threat, Thompson said, adding that U.S. Forest Service tree thinning programs will prevent the spread of flames and ensure the owls remain off the endangered list.

The tree huggers claimed that the owl in question needs "mature trees" to nest. Never mind that they've been seen successfully nesting in a K-mart sign.

China Lowering Gas Subsidy: China, a member of the World Trade Organization since 2001, is going to raise gas prices at the pump to the equivalent of about $2.10 per gallon. But keeping gas prices low encourages waste and has resulted in heavy losses for refiners, and thus discouraged investment in new refining and distribution networks.

Other ways in which China is hurting the world economy: slowing rate of reforms mandated by the agreement to become a member of the WTO, and blatantly manipulating its currency, keeping it undervalued by as much as 40 percent.

Silly French in Canada: Nearly everyone in the world realizes that Kyoto was an unachievable goal — unless you want to bankrupt your economy, of course. But:

Quebec Premier Jean Charest says he's ready to act alone to respect the Kyoto accord if the federal government reneges on its commitments.

Does anyone know of any country that has met the Kyoto reduction levels? A country that actually has cars and a manufacturing base, I mean.

Silly Scots War on Knives: They're at it again, calling for tougher sentences for carrying a knife in Scotland:

Any person accused of carrying or using a knife who has a similar previous conviction will face prosecution before a judge and jury instead of a sheriff alone, meaning tougher sentences will be handed down.

Police have also been instructed to arrest anyone caught carrying a knife and police will no longer be able to grant bail to someone arrested for such an offence - instead they will be kept in custody before their first appearance in court.

I carry a pocket knife, which I'd be lost without. Silly Scots, attack the social issues, not the implements of destruction picked up by the social degenerates that your schools are turning out.

How Do You Keep That Lit? I'll believe it when I see it:

Afghanistan is launching fishery projects in 12 provinces in an effort to convert opium poppy growers to fish farmers, local reports said Tuesday. ...

Engineer Khalilullah Frogh, head of the fishery projects, said this would provide an alternative livelihood for those presently involved in cultivating poppies for sale to drug traffickers. He added that the government hoped the country could be self-sufficient in fish production in five years.

Afghanistan currently imports fish from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.

The profits from poppy farming are astoundingly high. Tough to get people in remote areas to turn to fish farming.

Overdue Honors: 86-year-old Abraham Hanki received a Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal, finally receiving recognition for having spent three years in Japanese prison camps during World War II. Hanki is a survivor of the brutal Bataan Death March.

Thank you, Abraham Hanki, for your courage and sacrifice, and your commitment to make the military your career after your experience.

High School Faith: At a Kentucky high school graduation:

Earlier in the day, a federal judge had banned prayers from the ceremony in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

But during the principal's opening remarks, about 200 students prayed aloud, drawing thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd.

That'll give you hope for our future generation.

Various

Pictured is EveR-1, a robot built to resemble a 20-year-old Korean female:

Fifteen motors underneath her silicon skin allow her to express a limited range of emotions, and a 400-word vocabulary enables her to hold a simple conversation. ...

KITECH [Korea Institute of Industrial Technology] scientists are now working on EveR-2, which they say will have improved vision, a wider range of facial expressions, and the ability to stand and move all four limbs.

An Australian scientist has built a partial DNA profile of Jack the Ripper using samples taken from the back of stamps and the gum used to seal the envelopes of letters purportedly sent by the killer to the police. While the results were inconclusive, the analysis suggests that Jack the Ripper could have been a woman.

Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, aka Comet 73P, will make the closest approach by a coment in two decades when it whizzes past a mere 10 million kilometres from Earth in a string of dozens of pieces. You should be able to see two of the brighest chunks using a small telescope or even binoculars, and maybe we'll even get a meteor shower next Monday or Tuesday.

It took 500 pounds of plastic explosives to send the USS Oriskany to the bottom of the ocean about 24 miles off Pensacola Beach. The carrier, commissioned in 1950, was sunk in order to act as an artificial reef to attract fish and other marine life.

The FBI is looking for Jimmy Hoffa, this time executing a search warrent in Milford Township, about 35 miles west of Detroit.

New Jersey is fighting high gas prices by allowing some gas stations along the New Jersey Turnpike to go self-service, just to see if prices dip. That's right — Jersey and Oregon actually forbid self-service stations.

Porn to the rescue! Technophiles will remember that it was the porn industry that drove VCR technology even as Hollywood moaned and complained that it would ruin them. Here they go again:

Starting Monday, Vivid Entertainment says it will sell its adult films through the online movie service CinemaNow, allowing buyers to burn DVDs that will play on any screen, not just a computer.

Dan Rather, veteran journalist who was infamous for his bias, derided for his softball interviews of Democrats, and publically shamed by his desire to run fictitious memos of Bush's military service as fact, has the audacity to say that the media must retain "old-fashioned journalistic values."

A fine column by a journalist on the subject of blogs. Money quote:

No matter how unappealing it may sound, the blogosphere is duty-bound to adopt the basic tenets of journalism – identifying your sources, checking facts and never sacrificing accuracy and fairness for the sake of a "good" story. The role of watchdog demands you be fully identifiable and accountable. (Full disclosure: we journalists need you.

News Watch

CIA Watch: how we can learn from the Mossad in fixing our dysfunctional intelligence agency.

Kerry Watch: The hubris of a billionaire's self defense fund.

Economy Watch: US Steelmakers are expecting robust demand for the rest of the year, making it the third year in a row that demand has remained strong.

Tax Watch: It looks like Republican lawmakers will succeed in extending some of the tax cuts for another year or two.

UN Watch: U.N. peacekeepers, aid workers and teachers are having sex with Liberian girls as young as 8 in return for money, food or favors.

MSM Watch: The New York Times has once again been caught plagerizing.

Illegal Alien Watch: An Arizona sheriff is using an old tactic to find and arrest those entering our country illegally: posses.

Health Watch: Cancer resistant mice have been discovered. "When white blood cells from the mice are injected into other mice, they eradicate advanced tumours and provide lifetime protection against the disease. ... Even highly aggressive forms of malignancy with very large tumours were eradicated."

Looney Watch: PETA has launched an ad campaign in which PETA President and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk is quated as saying, "Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it." [One supposes the same goes for cancer.]

Fun Facts for Lefties: Fidel Castro is apparently worth $900 million and ranked seventh on the Forbes magazine list of wealthy heads of state.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Today, 19 April, marks the 63^rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

On April 19, 1943, hundreds of young Jewish fighters took up arms in the first major act of armed civilian resistance against the Nazis, who invaded and occupied Poland in 1939.

The insurgents opted to fight the Nazis in the face of the German plan to exterminate the tens of thousands of Jews remaining in the Ghetto.

63 years ago today, Jews recognized that they were being shipped off to death camps and took up arms to stop the horror. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the uprising remains an inspirational event.

I recommend ShrinkWrapped's post on the subject.

Technorati Tags: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Affluent Beggers

Here's why I don't give money to panhandlers:

[Elizabeth] Johnson and her 34-year-old partner, Jason Pancoast, who have been together for 14 years, support themselves and their three children, 6-year-old Seth, 3-year-old Adrianne and 3-month-old Synclair, by panhandling.

Pancoast refers to himself and his family as "affluent beggars."

"If you’re an affluent beggar you stay in a hotel and eat a continental breakfast," he says. "It makes it a lot easier to be philosophical about it."

They've been begging for six years, yet have had two more children.

Carrying her smiling baby in a navy blue front pack and pushing Adrianne in a green jogging stroller, Johnson stops people on the street and asks them for money to find shelter for her children. ... The family is staying at the Cedarwood Inn in a room with a kitchenette. It costs $243 a week.

Help her find shelter, because they are looking for someplace "more permanent" than an inn.

According to Pancoast, begging can be lucrative. He claims the family sometimes makes $300 a day asking for money and has made as much as $800. The family also receives $500 a month in food stamps.

$300 dollars a day, five days a week (you don't expect them to work on weekends, do you?) for fifty weeks per year (they have to take vacation!) comes out to $75,000 a year. Do the math.

"I always felt bad for her because she had a baby in the hot summer sun," says Debbie, an Ashland resident who asked that her last name not be used. ...

But then Debbie saw Pancoast drop Johnson off at the Ashland Plaza in a nice car and kiss her and the baby goodbye. "Then I became a little bitter," Debbie says. "I was working my tail off at three jobs — waitressing and babysitting — and I see her eating at restaurants that are so expensive I can’t afford to eat there."

I spent a week in San Francisco a few years ago, a city overrun with homeless people. Every day on the way to the convention center I would pass one guy on a particular street corner and he was there each evening as I walked back to my hotel. He never missed a chance to hit me up for some cash. Until the last night of my trip when I was running a little late. He was on his cell phone calling someone to come pick him up.

"Toxic" Pet Food Recalled

Diamond Pet Foods has recalled 19 brands of dog and cat food for being contaminated with aflatoxin, a naturally occurring toxic chemical by-product from the growth of the fungus Aspergillus flavus, on corn and other crops.

Check the full list of recalled products to make sure your brand isn't on it.

Just a Bump in the Beltway has a personal story on the matter that every pet owner should read. Scary.

Technorati Tags: Pets, Cats, Dogs, Pet Food, Product Recall.

Air Traffic

Here's a link to an awesome graphical representation of air traffic over the contentental U.S. during a 24 hour period.

Flights to Europe seem to be mostly inbound beginning at 5:30 a.m. or so and change to almost all outbound around 6 p.m. As expected, flight traffic ramps up fast and furious on the east coast starting about 6 a.m. and rapidly expands to the opposite coast by 9.

Found at Castle Argghhh!

People are Stupid

A three-month investigation has shut down a counterfeit money ring responsible for up to 10 percent of all funny money in Arizona. What tipped off the authorities? They sent out a printer for repair which was jammed with counterfeit bills.

A deaf and blind Australian woman is suing her mother's doctor in that country's first "wrongful life" suit. The woman claims that if the doctor had correctly diagnosed rubella in the first trimester, her mother would have aborted her. She is suing for the costs arising from a lifetime of medical treatment that she needs to survive, not to mention pain and suffering.

A man that suffered brain damage in 2001 is suing his bank for $2 million dollars because the branch manager was rude to him when he asked that a $32 overdraft fee be reversed (after all, he was only $5 overdrawn). He claims that the stress from the encounter is making his condition worse.

Headlines

Headline of the Day
UN has a Heart of Darkness

Most succint headline
He Had to Indict Somebody for Something!

From the Department of "Duh"
Bad blood exists between White House, CIA

Good Smell Panics New Yorkers

An invisible could of sweet-smelling joy drifted through parts of Manhatten, prompting calls to emergency services:

Reports of the syrupy cloud poured in from across Manhattan after 9 p.m. Some feared that it was something sinister.

There were so many calls that the city's Office of Emergency Management coordinated efforts with the Police and Fire Departments, the Coast Guard and the City Department of Environmental Protection to look into it.

Egads! The things that people freak out about freaks me out.

Wacky News Roundup

Rome has banned "cruel" round goldfish bowls and the northern city of Turin now fines dog owners who don't walk their dog at least three times a day.

A European physicist has mathamatically proved that a four-legged table that is wobbling on an uneven surface can be rotated so that all four legs are on solid ground.

And from the department of "Duh!", researchers at Cornell have determined that a woman's period affects her brain:

So far, they say, the results tentatively indicate that a boost in brain activity in an emotional centre of the brain might help to keep some women more emotionally stable, even as their hormones go on a roller-coaster ride.

Houston Does What New Orleans Couldn't

Houston Independent School District dedicated about 300 bus drivers and other employees to the rescue effort as 150 school buses rescued people off the streets of New Orleans.

One wonders why New Orleans didn't do a better job of enforcing the "mandatory evacuation" order, or even of offering evacuation aid to those who did not have the means to do so themselves. Especially when one sees that there were plenty of vehicles available.

But now they aren't doing anyone any good. Great planning. But of course, what do you expect from a stressed-out paranoid that believes the CIA is going to disappear him soon:

Apparently suffering from stress and a bit of paranoia, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin tells CNN Saturday night that he believes the CIA will "wipe him out" after his criticism of President Bush and the Federal Government in response to Hurricane Katrina.

Mayor Nagin seemed to have calmed down after meeting with President Bush for two hours on Friday but became stressed again over the current situation still unfolding in his city.

The Mayor has come under serious scrutiny and criticism in the last 72 hours after photos of parking lots filled with school buses that were sitting in a foot of water were released on the Internet. Many critics of the Mayor and Gov. Blanco say the buses could have saved an estimated 20,000 people if they had been used for emergency evacuations which President Bush had declared two days before Katrina hit.

While We Were Otherwise Occupied

The United States shut out Mexico 2-0 to clinch a spot in next year's World Cup competition in Germany, the first team to secure a spot in the championship games.

It is the United State's fifth straight trip to the World Cup finals, this time with them ranked sixth in the world — just behind Mexico for some strange reason. The Mexicans are pretty mouthy for a losing team:

Mexico (5-1-1) still needs another point in its final three games to get one of the region's three berths at Germany 2006. Its coach, Ricardo Lavolpe, was not impressed by the winners.

``The U.S. is a small team,'' he said. ``They play like my sister, my aunt and my grandmother.''

Tough talk, considering this:

The United States has not lost to Mexico on American soil in seven games since 1999, and has not yielded any goals in that span, either.

Signifying Nothing notes:

This is the fifth consecutive World Cup that the U.S. has qualified for, suggesting that the American squad is rapidly becoming a serious contender on the international scene.

Too true, and Right Thinking from the Left Coast takes a certain satisfaction in this particular win:

This is going to be the latest reason for the rest of the world to hate America. As the popularity of soccer grows in this country, we're eventually going to dominate this sport like we do pretty much all the others. And Mexico? They get their entire sense of national identity from this game. It's nice to remind those pricks just who the master is.

I would just like to note that the United States still does not dominate in the time-honored game of Cricket, but I think that's because no one except a Brit (or a former colony thereof) has the patience to understand the rules.

You Know It's a Bad Day When . . .

You take refuge from a hurricane in something as massive and seemingly solid as the Superdome and the roof starts blowing off:

Only two holes so far, each about 15 to 20 feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide, and the people inside seem to be taking it in stride:

"I could have stayed at home and watched my roof blow off," said one of the refugees, Harald Johnson, 43. "Instead, I came down here and watched the Superdome roof blow off. It's no big deal; getting wet is not like dying."

It's the people trying to provide for the refugees that I feel sorry for:

Residents lined up for blocks, clutching meager belongings and crying children as National Guardsman searched them for guns, knives and drugs.

Then Katrina's rain began, drenching hundreds of people still outside, along with their bags of food and clothing. Eventually, the searches were moved inside to the Superdome floor, where some people wrapped themselves in blankets and tried to sleep.

It was almost 10:30 p.m. before the last person was searched and allowed in. Thornton estimated 8,000 to 9,000 were inside when the doors closed for the 11 p.m. curfew.

More than 600 people with medical needs were inside. "And we sent another 400 to hospitals," said Gen. Ralph Lupin, who commands the 550 National Guard troops in the Dome.

"We've got sick babies, sick old people and everything in between," Stephens said. "We're seen strokes, chest pain, diabetes patients passing out, seizures, people without medicine, people with the wrong medicine. It's been busy."

In Defense of "Yes Men"

As a mid-level manager I am finally coming to appreciate why some executives fall into the trap of surrounding themselves with people who agree with them.

I am tired fed up with going into a status meeting with a project team and getting questioned week after week after week about why we are doing this or spending money on that or why aren't we doing something completely different.

I understand that techs think they know what is the best technology to implement. Hell, they do! I understand that because that is from whence I come.

But at some point it is time to salute, charge up the hill and get the damn thing done.

I wonder if "yes man" is applied to often to those that can just get things done.

Business Plans . . .

... for setting up new business are just damn hard things to write! In case anyone was interested in my opinion.

Cool App of the Day

The Baby Name Wizard shows the relative popularity of names for the last 100 years. It is a fun, dynamic Java app.

Note that the popularity of Hillary (and alternate spelling Hilary) plumeted in the early to mid-90s and neither was in the top 1000 by 2003.

Hat tip to samaBlog

No Fuss Burials

A cemetery down under is turning things upside down — OK, actually right side up — with the country's first "vertical cemetery":

A controversial proposal to drill holes in four hectares of land near Derrinallum and bury loved ones on their feet in simple body bags has been given the go-ahead.

About 17,000 bodies will fit in the cemetery. They will be stored in Melbourne morgues and buried in batches of 12 to 15 to minimise costs. ...

Graves will not have a headstone, but instead be mapped out using a grid system.

The company director says that this is a "cheap, simple, environmentally friendly and respectful way" to bury your loved ones at a cost of only $1,000.

"This way, when you die you are returned to the earth with a minimum of fuss and with no paraphernalia that would affect the environment.

"You're not burning 90kg of gas in a crematorium and there's no ongoing maintenance costs."

A thousand dollars for a round hole in the ground and a body bag. And you have to stand up for eternity!

I gotta get me a gimmick like this.

7¢ Equals $1?

I get a lot of mail asking for money. Political causes (I was a navy SEAL and now I want to fight for your rights in a state far removed from your own but that's OK but you want to support what's right, right?). Charities (Please help this Indian tribe because they don't have casinos). And so on.

Now I'm not above helping out whenever I can (that whole "rich man / eye of a needle" story kinda scares me), which is probably why every organization with its hand out is hoping that I'm a soft touch. And usually I am.

But there are two things I just don't get.

The first is when they send you money in the hopes that you'll send it back along with some more. BAMPAC is bad about this, although lately they've only been sending two pennies glued to their plea. Freedom Alliance (spokesperson Ollie North, which is why I joined) usually includes quarters. Some organizations even send dollar bills.

What is the thinking behind this? "If we send them money they'll see that we need money!"? Yeeaaahhh . . . I don't think so. If you have enough money to be sending me money then I figure you don't need any of my money. And by the way, thanks for the quarter.

The other thing that confuses me is the "exponential benefit" ploy. For instance, the Christian Appalachian Project (no doubt a fine organization that is doing great work) promises that my pennies will result in dollars and dollars worth of benefit.

First comes the emotive pleas, spread throughout the letter, in big bold type. Things like:

Without these medicines they may get very sick, even die.

...they cut back on food to afford their medicine.

Cheesy, but OK, my heartstrings are appropriately tugged, so how can I help?

It sounds unbelievable, but just 7 cents can provide A FULL DOLLARS worth of lifesaving medicine. ...

Your gift of $14 today can be used to provide $200 worth of lifesaving medicine ...$28 can provide more than $400...and so on.

Yes, it does sound unbelievable.

Now I admit that I was only a math major for a couple of semesters, but I don't understand this. And they don't bother to explain how are able to make this happen. And frankly, if they can accomplish this miracle (which makes that whole "loaves and fishes" story look like David Blaine schtick) then they probably don't need help from me.

I'll save my money for dignified organizations. Like the Salvation Army.

Mall Sex

The Hungarian Interior Ministry wants to allow prostitutes to solicit customers in shopping malls, as long as they go elsewhere to "complete the transaction".

Gives a whole new meaning to "window shopping".

Cool Question of the Day

From time to time I participate in Zogby online polls. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the most recent poll because a large part of it centered around the upcoming federal senate race.

Buried in the latter part of the poll was this question:

If the United States were the TV show "Survivor", which state would you vote off?

Heh! There was no hesitation -- California!

Buffalo Nickel Returns

Among the coins to be released this year, the U.S. Mint reintroduces the buffalo nickel.

“The 2005 American Bison nickel will look significantly different from any nickels you’ve seen,” [United States Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore] told the crowd. “It marks the first time that the image of President Jefferson has ever changed on the nickel, and we have the word “Liberty” in his handwriting.” Looking at Cody, the live Buffalo, she added, “There is a beautiful, strong, classic American bison on the reverse.”

Flying Frozen Fowl of Australia

Somebody in Newcastle is hurling frozen chickens at houses hard enough to punch holes through tile roofs:

Tamplin said one theory was that birds picked up the chickens at a nearby dump but dropped them mid-flight because they were too heavy.

But he said it was a most likely a prank by practical jokers who fired the frozen chickens from a giant catapult.

At least three homes have been damaged to date.

Travolta's Springboard for Sale

The multi-colored flashing dance floor used in Saturday Night Fever is up for auction:

Organisers of the auction are expecting bids of more than 80,000 dollars (£42,000) for the piece of Hollywood history.

The 24-feet by 16-feet dancefloor, which came to symbolise the 70s disco craze, has more than 300 coloured flashing lights under a Perspex surface.

That's only a little over $200 per square foot. Not bad for a piece of history, even though disco is something that should be buried in the past along with 4-inch wide neckties and those awful paisly patterns.

New HHG Trailer

Any hoopy frood knows that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is going Hollywood, coming to the big screen on April 29^th.

A new movie trailer can be viewed online and all movie news is posted in semi-blog format.

From looking at the trailer it seems like Touchstone Pictures is staying true to the series and has some great special effects like the Heart of Gold (pictured at right). I hate what they did with Marvin the Paranoid Android but like the Vogons.

It remains to be seen whether the audience will be subjected to Vogon poetry, the worst in the known universe. For example:

Oh freddled gruntbuggly
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.
Groop I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes
And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles,
Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon,
See if I don't!

BTW, yes I am geek enough to have read all five books in the Hitchhiker's trilogy several times as well as the original radio scripts, besides watching the cheesy and hilarious BBC series every time it came on PBS.

Puppy Hannity

Sean Hannity is asking you to suggest names for his new dog.

I imaginatively suggested Alpha Patriot. Think he'll use it?

Hat tip to Right Thinking.

Superbowl Thoughts

I hold a grudge for a long time, so it will come as not surprise when I say I was rooting for the Patriots. As an expatriated Texan I am, of course, a Dallas fan. I have disliked the Eagles since the dirty play style taught by Buddy Ryan.

Eagles displayed the worst clock management I can ever recall seeing. I was pleased.

Commercial awards:

• Best commercial: Anheuser-Busch for the applause for troops debarking and walking through an airport.
• Most risque: GoDaddy.com for a wardrobe malfunction at a faux-FCC hearing.
• Funniest: Fed Ex for jamming a celebrity (Burt Reynolds), dancing and talking bear, cute kid, sexy girls, a theme song and a funny one-liner into a single ad.
• Funniest runner-up: M.C. Hammer goes bankrupt.
• Most ineffective: M.C. Hammer goes bankrupt, 'cause I can't remember what the commercial was for.
• Most gratuitus use of sex: Tabasco's Tanlines commercial.
• Best use of a flying celebrity: Frito Lay, as kids threw M.C. Hammer back over a fence.
• Best Dance: Olympus for thier music player/digital camera combo product.
• Best animal acts: Career Builder for at least three different commercials using monkeys in suits.
• Most forgetable: Mamma's boy doll (with magnets so doll could not be unattached from Mamma doll) that advertised (for some inexplicable reason) an anti-perspirant.
• Special mention: Ford Mustang's frozen guy.

Watch most of the commercials (and four that were banned for some reason) at iFilm.

One Wonders Why They Bother

Most Frequently Delayed Flights:

• 1. SkyWest Airlines flight 6973 from Indianapolis to Chicago — late 100 percent of the time.
• 2. ExpressJet Airlines flight 3257 from Rochester, N.Y., to Newark, N.J. — late 96.00 percent of the time.
• 3. American Airlines flight 1723 from New York JFK to Miami — late 93.75 percent of the time.
• 3. American Airlines flight 2031 from New York JFK to Miami — late 93.75 percent of the time.
• 5. American Airlines flight 1085 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Chicago — late 87.50 percent of the time.
• 5. American Airlines flight 1196 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Oklahoma City — late 87.50 percent of the time.
• 5. Northwest Airlines flight 851 from Detroit to Anchorage, Alaska — late 87.50 percent of the time.
• 5. American Airlines flight 474 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Dayton, Ohio — late 87.50 percent of the time.

Imaginative Afterlife

This is, I swear, a picture of a coffin with creator Isaac Adjetey Sowah.

Click the link and check out the slideshow. It is probably the only place you will ever see a giant, polished uterus (for a gynaecologist).

Hat tip to Shining Full Plate and a Good Broadsword.

Beating Procrastination

A rather interesting article on procrastination that says it is a learned behavior (obviously) and can be unlearned. The author gives some tips and offers this quote:

Studies have shown that the average office worker does only 1.5 hours of actual work per day. The rest of the time is spent socializing, taking coffee breaks, eating, engaging in non-business communication, shuffling papers, and doing lots of other non-work tasks. The average full-time office worker doesn't even start doing real work until 11:00 am and begins to wind down around 3:30 pm.

He also has a link to a humorous movie on the subject.

Amazing

To be truely astounded, watch this video of a simple but amazing illusion. Once you have done that you will immediately want to print out the dragon illusion and create your own little desktop creature.

It is even more astonishing in real life and your friends and family will think you are wicked cool. I promise.

Tsunami Adoption

A baby hippo, less than three years old, lost its mother in the tsunami and has adopted a 100-year-old tortoise as a surrogate:

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatised. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.

Odds 'n Ends

After almost 10 years in office, Chirac is talking about running for a third term. Reading this headline, I immediately wondered how much of this had to do with slick Jacques wanting to avoid prosecution for misusing taxpayer funds. But reading down to the last paragraph of the article shows that I'm not the only one:

But as political observers here like to point out, as long as he stays in office Chirac is immune from attempts by judges to investigate his role in a party financing scandal at the Paris City Hall when he was mayor in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Chirac's deputy at the time, Alain Juppé, was convicted for his involvement last January.

Happy anniversary to the elder Bush couple. They are celebrating 60 years together.

Speaking of love, Mary Priddy and Nicholas Peschang were in Iraq to help with the rebuilding effort. They met, fell in love, and got married by an Army chaplain -- all in Iraq (the bride wore army boots). A nice story.

The population of China has reached 1.3 billion with the birth of baby Yin. A girl. In a country that limits the number of babies that couples can have, which results in the infanticide of a multitude of baby girls, what are the chances that this one would be a girl?

It looks as if the U.S. will increase the number of H1B visas for Indian workers. Praise be!

Tech worker job confidence rose in December, with 37% saying they expected employers to add staff.

Country music sales were up 12% in 2004. Y'all probably think that I listen to country, seein' as I'm from Texas and all. Y'all would be wrong. I listen to metal, 70's rock, 80's rock, and classical. However, I believe country to represent some of the finest artists in American and am doing my best to learn to like it. One of my ten presets in my car is set to country. I keep it there as long as I can stand it before moving on.

Speaking of dead music, this Saturday would be Elvis' 70th birthday. In Memphis, the King's birthday (and dead day on 16 August) means full hotels, idiots on the road, and news reels showing candlelight vigils. It seems that fans are gearing up for celebrations in Britain, France and Germany. Who woulda thunk it?

Michigan voters may have the opportunity to ban affirmative action in a 2006 referendum. Power to 'em.

How to Lose 6½ Pounds . . .

. . . in three days, even during the holidays:

Get one of those nasty head colds. I'm finally feeling a little better but I'm so stuffed up I feel as thick as a Democrat trying to grasp the nuances of W's foreign policy.

Happy Solstice

In the interests of eliminating differences between religions, Constantine moved the Christian sabbath from Saturday to Sunday as well as Jesus' birthday from 6 January to 25 December.

Or perhaps is was Pope Julius I that moved Christmas.

Oh wait, maybe it was Emperor Aurelian who picked 25 December so it would coincide with Mithras' birthday.

Seems like facts are pretty subjective on this topic, but there here are some cool quizes to test your knowledge on Solstice traditions.

Ironing Out the Bugs

Brad Choate was kind enough to throw an email my way and explain that only plugins that used MT template tags were useless on a dynamic site, whereas MT-Blacklist and Conversation Killer are just scripts that will work fine.

Armed with this information I went in search of spam-killers. I downloaded Blacklist and had it installed and configured in about three hours. Any 9-year-old geek would be able to do it in minutes, but since going into management my tech skills have eroded away as my brain turns into pudding (I blame the four-hour meetings).

It is working fantastically! Comments are now open!

My only problem seems to be that "background tasks are disabled" so I can't auto-update from the master blacklist. I have no idea what a background task is nor how to ask my hosting service if I can have it. Which is a bummer, as Conversation Killer says it requires background tasks and I really want to install it.

Thanks also to Debra at TFS Magnum who notified me that she was getting a permissions error when hitting my page. Paul (my geek/guitar playing friend) figured out that it was my referrer script (created by Little Green Footballs) that was the culprit.

This time it was the incredibly-useful etc. that came to my rescue with her post explaining Setting up the LGF Referrer Script on MT. It was, naturally, a linux permissions thing: I needed a couple of files set to '666'. And they say Microsoft is evil?

Nostalgia Not Always a Good Thing

There were some very good things about the 60s: computer miniaturization and landing on the moon, "I have a dream" and marches for social change, hip-huggers and mini-skirts (my personal favorite)

On the other hand, there were some things that should be left buried in the past. Hippies and entitlement, stovepipe pants and 4-inch wide ties, and of course paisley. I hate paisley.

Another is those terribly tacky aluminum Christmas trees with the four-color wheel. Unfortunately, these awful living room eyesores are making a comeback:

Now, the aluminum tree is back. The frilled, fireproof, silvery centerpiece of the season -- guaranteed to be "the talk of your neighborhood" in the 1963 Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog -- again graces our family celebrations. "I've already sold out of them twice and am working on a third time," says Steve Colby, proprietor of Off the Deep End, a Maryland-based novelty company....

"Think Sputnik, think astronauts. The aluminum tree is an icon of an era, all Space Aged and clean looking," says Stephen Jackson, curator of the North Carolina-based Aluminum Tree and Aesthetically Challenged Seasonal Ornament Museum -- "ATOM," for short.

Frozen Dew

Great photography from Da Goddess.

"Fire of the Flesh"

This is Kaydee Hager, a four-year-old girl from Minot, North Dakota who was stricken with Stevens Johnson Syndrome (aka "Fire of the Flesh"). It is an extreme allergic reaction to a drug. In Kaydee's case, it was Phenobarbital which she was taking for seizures:

Blistering from the inside out-skin lesions are wide spread over the entire body. Treatment is similar to that of a severe burn patient. The major concerns are blindness, dry eye syndrome, lung damage, asthma, arthritis.

Kaydee's lung has collapsed and she has needed a blood transfusion to help her fight off the infection. She is heavily sedated to help her heal faster.

Kaydee is in ICU in the Children's Hospital and her parents, Andy Hager and Carolyn Engh need your financial support to help cover the staggering medical expenses.

If you can help with a few dollars this Christmas season, you do so in two ways. Drop by Say Anything and use his Amazon Honor System. He is donating all tips to help this little girl.

Alternatively, you can donate directly by mailing a check to:
     Kaydee Hager Benefit Fund Account
     First Western Bank and Trust
     900 South Broadway
     Minot, North Dakota 5870

Proof of Internet Usefullness

The internet is absolutely indispensable. Where else can you find A Dictionary of Comicbook Words on Historical Principles?

How else could we know that PRUKT is "a mechanical sound, as would be made by a weapon and a metalic holster" as used in Batman #502, 1993?

Met a Future Conservate Today

She claims to be a devout liberal but she's bright and somewhat informed. Plus she has friends like blogger iJeff, a conservative that helps put CNN on the air.

I told her that I was confident that she would grow up one day and be a reformed liberal just like me (at her age I was just coming off the communist phase).

As long as I was over at iJeff's place, I took note of a link he has to cowboy golf art. Even if you're not a cowboy, if you like golf you can no doubt appreciate the humor in these paintings.

Breaking News: Massive Explosion in Houston

Houston-based Right Side of the Rainbow is live blogging this story as it unfolds.

Medic Roth

Rock David Lee Roth has cut his hair and is diligently learning to be a paramedic:

"I have been on over 200 individual rides now," Roth told The Post. "Not once has anyone recognized me, which is perfect for me."

"It has been an eye-opening adventure," said Roth, who asked The Post not to disclose which "very colorful neighborhoods" he works in because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself or his colleagues.

Linda Reissman, Roth's EMS consultant and tutor, said she didn't know what to expect of her famous pupil at first, but "he has probably turned out to be one of the best students I have ever had."...

"He is very serious," she said. "You would never know you were dealing with a rock-'n'-roll guy, his commitment really is touching. He wants to help people."

You have to admire a guy that's willing to change careers at the age of 50. On the other hand, I guess he can afford the cut in pay.

Spanking in Tennessee

Usually when you read or hear about a spanking controversy these days it concerns firm teachers and unruly students. But this is from a Tasty Flavors Sno Biz shaved ice business in a Chattanooga suburb:

Two young women complained to police that they were spanked by their 57-year-old employer for mistakes on the job, and the boss now faces criminal charges.

One of the women told police that on her first day at the Tasty Flavors Sno Biz, before any spanking, owner Paul Eugene Levengood made her sign a statement that said: "I give Gene permission to bust my behind any way he sees fit."

It's not as if it happened all the time:

The other woman said she continued to work for Levengood more than a year after she was spanked and reported to police that he told her "either she could be spanked or be fired."

And it's not as if they didn't deserve it:

According to police documents, one of the women reported that on Oct. 30, her fourth day on the job, Levengood called her "into the back room of the store" after she forgot to put a banana in a smoothie drink.

She said that as punishment Levengood "bent her over his knee and spanked her behind 20 times."

Just 20 swats for being so stupid as to leave a whole banana out of a smoothie? Hey, that sort of incompetence just can't be allowed or else our whole civilization may come crashing down around our heads!

Lingua Glocka

The founder of Tennessee Gun Talk made me aware of his site and I immediately added it to my links at the left. A great source of information about Tennessee gun laws and issues to suppliment the information available at the Tennessee Firearms Association's board.

Reagan Stamp

Standing near a piece of the Berlin wall and her husband's tomb in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, an emotional Nancy Reagan unveiled a stamp commemorating her late husband:

"He considered it the honour of a lifetime to serve as president, but I think he would also say: 'Now don't make too much of a fuss'," she told an applauding audience.

The 37-cent stamp will be released shortly after his birthday next February.

[Does this mean postage rates are going up again?]

American Voter's Message to Terrorists

(And to France and readers of the Guardian and to Germany and to Michael Moore and to Bruce Springsteen and to California in general and to the New York Times and to SeeBS.)

Get the Kitty Psychiatrist

Cats can suffer stress-related illness.

"Pure Malt Whiskey"

Pathetic Earthlings has a post about a new Scotch coming to town and a labeling controversy.

Buzz Beer

Anheuser-Busch is brewing up something to appeal to the younger crowd: B^e (pronounced "B-to-the-e"). It combines the intoxication of a 6.6% beer (higher than average) with the ingredients of an energy drink:

In addition to its caffeine content, about as much as in a can of Mountain Dew, the beer will include ginseng and guarana, a Brazilian berry.

Just what we need: drunks who can't sleep it off.

Seems to me that Drew Carey should sue: Buzz Beer was his idea. There was even a dance.

Rodney Dangerfield Dies at Age 82

• With my wife I don't get no respect. I made a toast on her birthday to 'the best woman a man ever had.' The waiter joined me.
• Yeah, I know I'm ugly...I said to a bartender, 'Make me a zombie.' He said 'God beat me to it.'
• When my old man wanted sex, my mother would show him a picture of me.
• I met the surgeon general. He offered me a cigarette.
• One time I went to a hotel. I asked the bellhop to handle my bag. He felt up my wife!
• I'm a bad lover. Once I caught a peeping tom booing me.
• My wife only has sex with me for a purpose. Last night she used me to time an egg.
• I was making love to this girl and she started crying. I said, "Are you going to hate yourself in the morning?" She said, "No, I hate myself now."
• I knew a girl so ugly, the last time I saw a mouth like hers it had a hook on the end of it.
• When I was born the doctor took one look at my face, turned me over and said, "Look, twins!"

Rodney Dangerfield, the goggle-eyed comic famed for his self-deprecating one-liners and signature phrase "I can't get no respect," died on Tuesday at age 82, his publicist said.

Dangerfield, who became a pop culture sensation with a string of broad film comedies starting with "Caddyshack" in 1980, died at 1:20 p.m. PDT (4:20 p.m. EDT) at the UCLA Medical Center, where he had undergone heart valve replacement surgery in August, spokesman Kevin Sasaki said in a statement.

Rodney walks with the angels and the angels now laugh when they walk. Rest in peace.

I Love Comments

Stormy Dragon and Rob from Say Anything (both of whom I read even though Stormy doesn't have an RSS feed so that is more hit-or-miss) are having an amusing debate in the comments section of my post about Rall's latest idiocy -- only allowing the politically savy to vote.

Stormy has his own list of voter qualifications and I can't really tell if he's keeping it real or just jerking our chain.

Honda "Double C-note" Crotch Rocket

Honda should find Samuel Tilley and immediately cover all his court costs, tickets, fines, etc. They couldn't ask for better publicity for their 2003 Honda RC51 sport motorcycle than Tilley getting a ticket for going 205 mph on U.S. 61, outrunning the Cessna from which the state trooper was clocking him.

[Tilley] faces misdemeanor charges of speeding, reckless driving and riding without a motorcycle license.

After the Pioneer Press first reported the details of Tilley's citation, the nation's media picked up the story and, within hours, the motorcycle racing world began buzzing about whether Tilley really could have reached such a record-breaking velocity.

There are more than a few skeptics.

"Theoretically, it could happen — anything is possible — but I don't believe it," said John Ulrich, editor of Roadracing World, a magazine that covers sport bike racing. "Guys who want to break speed records and go over 200 mph have to go to great lengths to get there."...

This still would be the unofficial state record for the fastest speeding ticket, and everyone agrees a Honda CR51 can hit that speed. But it's not the double C-note.

The State Patrol is sticking to its guns — and stopwatch. Spokesman Kevin Smith said it's possible for Tilley's bike to go that fast, and noted the pilot who timed Tilley has more than two decades of experience on patrol.

Help Wanted

Things haven't been going Da Goddess' way lately and she needs a bit of help. Remember that charity begins at home.

Future Blogger

Les Jones is the proud father of a baby girl. Mother and new daughter are doing fine.

Last Starfighter -- with Lyrics

Seriously, cult classic The Last Starfighter will be set to music in an off-Broadway production this fall:

According to production notes, "In a small town nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1983, Alex Rogan is about to discover the adventure of a lifetime. An 18-year-old with an uncertain future, Alex becomes the master of a video game only to discover that Centauri, a huckster trying to save his vulnerable galaxy and make a little money in the process, put it on Earth as a testing ground. Centauri offers Alex membership in an elite cadre of space pilots charged with protecting the universe. Alex must find a way to reach his potential, while a great danger looms out in space, waiting for him."

I wonder what the Death Blossom scene will look like on a wooden stage.

Good News, Mom!

Moms and Dads of barely-pubescent girls everywhere can breath a big sigh of relief -- "Slutwear" is dead, at least for now:

Now you see it. Soon you won't. In a trend sure to be a relief to some and a disappointment to others, women will cover up instead of baring it all next season as the "slutwear" look comes to an end.

Demure designs have replaced scanty navel-baring looks on the catwalks of this week's semi-annual run of fashion shows, a reliable sign of what shoppers can expect to find in stores next spring.

"The slut is out now. She's dead," said Godfrey Deeny, senior fashion critic at Fashion Wire Daily.

Dumb Headline of the Day

Study: Car-SUV accidents create high-cost repairs

Duh! Just one of the reasons that when I choose a vehicle I wrap as much steel around me as I can afford.

Citizen Kristy

Congratulations goes out to Kristy, wife of Patriot Pat, who recently became a citizen of the United States. There is little doubt that she will be voting pro-gun!

You Can Help

At least 156 children have died in the Belsan massacre, bringing the death toll to over 320 people. Hundreds more remain hospitalized.

Fund for Victims: Beslan's Children

All personal donations will be used solely to help the children who were injured in Beslan or whose parents died as a result of this terror act.

The link (and the image) come from the Command Page, who got it from the Russian Embassy.

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.

Modern Art is Trash?

What do you know: a janitor that has a better sense of art than the patrons:

A cleaner at London's Tate Britain modern art gallery threw out a bag of garbage which formed part of an artwork because it was thought to be trash, British newspapers reported Friday.

The transparent bag of garbage -- full of newspaper, cardboard and other bits of paper -- formed part of a work by German-born artist Gustav Metzger called "Recreation Of First Public Demonstration Of Auto-Destructive Art."

Indian Hooters

Woohoo! Hooters is opening between five and ten franchises in India.

"The outfits don�t change. We make some allowances for local menu," said Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing for Hooters of America . "We might have the steak sandwich, but you might also be able to get fish and rice or curried chicken or something like that."

Maybe they'll have one open by the time my company sends me over there to offshore some jobs.

Quote of the Day

I can't decide between this:

Kerry was in Vietnam for only four months, which, coincidentally, is less than the combined airtime he's spent talking about it. It takes a special kind of person to get that many people to hate your guts in so little time. The last time this many people hated one person after only four months was when Margaret Cho had her own sitcom.

and this:

If the 254 veterans against Kerry got one-tenth as much media coverage for calling Kerry a liar as Clown Joe Wilson did for calling Bush a liar, the veterans wouldn't need to buy ad time to get their message out.

Both are from this week's article by the indominatable Ann Coulter.

Hilarious!

Just something to prove that you really can find everything on the Internet.

Hat tip to Shanktified!

Liberals No More Compassionate than Conservatives

What would we do without researchers? On group set out to determine if this "common perception" is true or not:

When the labels "conservative" and "liberal" are brought into a political discussion, the common perception is that Democrats, or liberals, are inherently more compassionate than Republicans, or conservatives.

Seems like a silly perception to me, but then again, I'm not in academia.

But Jeff Milyo, an associate professor of economics and public affairs, and associates Lisa Anderson and Jennifer Mellor of Virginia's College of William and Mary conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis:

The first experiment tested whether liberals were more likely to contribute tokens to a group account when such actions were contrary to self-interest. The second experiment tested whether liberals trusted strangers, or behaved in a trustworthy manner themselves, despite monetary incentives to the contrary.

Contrary to popular perception, researchers found little difference in the behavior of liberal and conservative subjects.

Duh.

Heart-warming

A 15-year-old becoming an Eagle scout isn't usually big news, but this is just plain nice.

Lance Wins 17th Stage!

The man is a machine!

Armstrong, distinctive in his overall leader's yellow jersey, launched himself into top gear within sight of the line to sprint past German champion Andreas Kloden, winning by inches.

"No gifts this year," the five-time champion said. "I want to win."

Even Armstrong seemed to find his victory hard to believe. A wide smile on his face, he jubilantly thrust his fists into the air as he zoomed past Kloden, who had seemed destined to win until Armstrong found the extra burst of speed.

The win, coming at the end of one of the hardest mountain stages this year, gave Armstrong bonus seconds that extended his overall lead on Italian Ivan Basso

Update: Some German fans show no class:

Asinine German cycling fans harassed five-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong during yesterday�s grueling ride though the French Alps � two of the �idiots� spat on him, and another spectator chased him while wearing a �F - - - Bush� T-shirt. By the end of the day, of course, the spit on Armstrong was exchanged for a bath of champagne, thanks to the Texan's time-trial victory.

Bad Business: Crawford Pools in Memphis

Background

I purchased a pool cover from a little outfit in Memphis called Crawford Pools. It cost a little more than I wanted to spend, but it's one of those real nice ones like the one that advertises an elephant standing on it (note: mine is actually a different brand -- it is not a LOOP-LOC. If it was, I probably wouldn't be having this problem).

My cover came with a 12-year guarantee, which I am in need of.

Although it is less than four years old, the cover is literally falling apart. Each square should look like this:

But many squares contain holes:

rips:

and/or tears: .

The rest of the squares show signs of unraveling. It is as if it is made from some biodegradable material that is meant to self destruct.

I have been calling Crawford Pools since April. I have received three separate assurances that someone will come out to look at it and, if necessary, pick it up to be shipped back to the manufacturer. I have left countless messages on the answering machine. To date I have received exactly one callback and no visits -- just empty promises of visits. Which is surprising, as their website touts these "commitment to excellence" points:

2. Create value through quality construction, honesty, integrity, reliability, communication, and follow-through.
3. Provide service unequaled in the Memphis area through our no-nonsense approach to every stage of the process of selecting and constructing your pool.
4. To anticipate our customers needs.

So much for truth in advertising.

So that is the problem. What follows is an explanation of what I want and why I believe I deserve it.

Index:
     Previous Problem: 2002
     What Happened This Year: 2004
     What I Believe I Deserve
     How Did You Treat the Cover?
     How Bad Is It?

Previous Problem: 2002

The warranty states that the manufacturer (Fort Wayne Pools, whose website doesn't even show this product anymore) will repair or replace the cover for free within the first two years of purchase (they get to choose which -- repair or replace).

Two years ago, my cover was within that two-year period and it already started having problems. One of the center panels developed a tear. I called Crawford Pools and worked with the senior Mr. Crawford to get the problem resolved. He said that this had never happened before and he really didn't know what to do, so it took quite some time to get everything straightened out. In fact, it took months!

I pulled the cover off of the pool in May, which is when I found the problem. Mr. Crawford called the manufacturer, who said that they needed a picture of the problem. I suggested taking a digital photo and sending it to him. Mr Crawford was somewhat excited about that because he'd never done that before and he wanted to explore the new technology (his naivet� was really kind of cute). I took several photos, saved them as lower-res jpegs and sent them to his AOL account. He got them, worked with the manufacturer to get it approved, and told me everything was set.

Finally, after a few weeks, someone came and got my cover.

Time passed. I called Mr. Crawford to see what was happening. He said he would check. Week after week I would call. He kept calling around trying to find out what had happened. It seems like the manufacturer never got the cover. Finally he found it -- at the wrong manufacturer!

They said it wasn't theirs, so they didn't know what to do with it. They had literally set it off to the side and ignored it. When they talked to Mr. Crawford, they asked him if he wanted them to fix it even though it wasn't theirs. He said yes. They did.

One day I came home and found the cover with a brand-spanking new bright blue panel in the middle stretched across my pool. Crawford Pools had even put it on for me (a job that would take two people about six minutes, but I appreciated it none-the-less). Yes, the entire summer had passed and I got the cover back just as the leaves were starting to fall (and weeks after I would have normally closed the pool).

But it was back, and I was quite satisfied. I even called Crawford Pools again to thank the senior Mr. Crawford. It had taken a long time and I had had to call him to goad him into action on more than one occasion, but I felt that Mr. Crawford took my problem seriously and worked hard in unfamiliar territory to get it fixed.

When I called I was told that Mr. Crawford was in the hospital. I asked about him and was told that it wasn't anything serious, but that he would probably be retiring. I expressed my condolences on his poor health and begged the person to tell Mr. Crawford how happy I was that everything had been resolved and how appreciative I was of his efforts. This surprised the person on the phone, who told me that they rarely (if ever) get calls like this, as most calls are complaints and no-one ever follows up after the problem has been fixed.

Return to Index

What Happened This Year: 2004

April: I was cleaning my cover in April and noticed that it had several places that had obvious tears. I was not too surprised, as I had never been able to get all of the water off of the top. The water was obviously leaking through the cover to make a constant pool on top.

My wife (being the more "get this done now" type of person) called Crawford Pools and left a message explaining that there was a problem with the cover and asking for a callback.

The callback never came, so she called again. And again. Three calls in one week (covering the end of second-to-the-last week in April and the beginning of the next week) and no response. She then began the slow process of goading me into action.

9 June: I finally called and got a real, live person. I explained that we were still waiting for a response. The man apologized, said that he thought Hanley Crawford had taken care of it, and promised to look at it the very next day as Hanley would be in the area. We chatted for a bit as I explained my previous history with the company, the protracted time it took for resolving the problem two years ago, how hard the senior Mr. Crawford had worked on getting the problem resolved, how it had gone to the wrong manufacturer, etc., etc., etc. I was told that Mr. Crawford had indeed retired and was enjoying good health. And so on.

He said that Mr. Crawford had "his own unique filing system", so they were unable to find anything relating to my problem -- such as who the manufacturer was. He asked me if I could look on the cover and read the label. I asked if he was talking about a white square attached to one end and he said yes, but there were two -- one at each end. I said that I would look, but believed that these had disintegrated so there wasn't much hope. I asked if there was another way of telling. He didn't think so, but I suggested that it might be on the handle (this is a lever used to get the springs on and off of the posts in the concrete). He brightened up and said that yes, it would be on the handle.

I said that I would look for a manufacturer on the labels and the handle. If I found anything, I would call back.

I thanked him, believing that now that I had talked to a real, live person that I would be given the same treatment as two years previously.

12 June: The first Saturday after talking to the company, I checked the cover for a label. Neither label was there -- you could only tell that they had previously existed by a small, white strip at either end of the cover where they had been attached. I then checked the handle. It is metal and had a fine covering of rust. There was no indication of a manufacturing stamp, but I used the back end of a hacksaw blade to laboriously "de-rust" the metal. In the end I had a fairly clean handle with no stamp. My effort was for naught.

14 June: I called and left a message on the answering machine stating that I had not been able to locate the manufacturer.

13 July: I hadn't heard anything, so I called (after all, it had been a month!). I left a message on an answering machine.

14 July: I still hadn't heard anything, so I called again. Again, I left a message on an answering machine.

20 July: I got a call back! "Ken" called me! He apologized profusely, saying that he thought Hanley had taken care of this. I said that I had been leaving messages on the machine. He said that several people pick up the messages and he hadn't heard any of mine (as if their internal communication problems should affect me).

He said that he had been out to my house and looked at the cover several weeks earlier (several weeks!). We spoke again about the lack of a filing system and that they didn't know the manufacturer. He indicated that this was the holdup and that I would have it on my paperwork. I said I would look in my files and try to find it (sometimes I'm anal about these things, sometimes I'm not).

Luckily, I found the paperwork that very night.

21 July: I called back and (no surprise) got the answering machine. I left my name and number, as well as the manufacturer's name and address. I requested a callback.

22 July: I called and left a message requesting a callback.

Return to Index

What I Believe I Deserve

The terms of the warranty state that after two years, the purchaser must pay 1/144 of the current purchase price of a replacement product plus a 15% service and handling charge plus shipping. This will no doubt total well in excess of $700, possibly many hundreds more.

This is obviously a faulty cover. It shows signs of wear far in excess of what it should, and began showing signs of wear within the first two years after purchase.

Had Crawford Pools sent the cover to Fort Wayne Pools (the correct manufacturer) two years ago when the problem was first manifested, they would have had an opportunity to look at the cover and determine its real condition. At that time, they very probably would have decided to replace the entire cover and avoid any additional problems in the future, for them, their customer (Crawford Pools) and the user of their product (me).

By not sending the pool cover to the correct manufacturer, Crawford Pools denied Fort Wayne Pools of the opportunity to correct the problem. As a result, I am now faced with a very expensive problem, and a dealer which shows no sign of wanting to take care of it.

In addition, it is not known what conditions the cover was stored in during the weeks at the "wrong manufacturer". They told Mr. Crawford that it had been put to one side, but what does that mean? Was it stored inside or outside? Were there any chemicals in the area that contributed to its rapid decay in the time since? These are not known.

I beleive that because of all of the above, I should be given a replacement cover at no cost. This is what should have happened in the first place two years ago.

I do not plan on taking down this post until that happens. BTW, this post is now the number one search result when searching Google for Crawford Pools and the number two search result when searching Yahoo for Crawford Pools. In both instances, the text returned is "AlphaPatriot: Bad Business: Crawford Pools in Memphis", big and bold.

One would think that this would get a business' attention. We shall see.

How Did You Treat the Cover?

When I purchased the cover from Hanley Crawford, we talked about the advertisements of an elephant walking on the cover. In fact, I was never told that mine would be made by a different manufacturer. In addition, when the cover was installed (they had to drill holes in the concrete apron for the posts) I talked to the two guys doing the job (neither was a Crawford -- they were just hired hands). One of the guys told me about someone who used to work for Crawford pools doing installations. He would show people how strong the cover was by doing jumping onto the cover from the diving board -- just like he was doing a cannon-ball into the pool! Now that's a strong cover!

In spite of this, I rarely walked on the cover. I did so only once a year, in order to clean it so that I could remove it and not drop any debris into the pool in the process. In fact, the directions explicitly stated that one should not walk on the edges as that will cause wear, and I did not. I was very careful to walk around the cover. This was not a cheap purchase, and I did not mistreat it!

Return to Index

How Bad Is It?

These pictures tell the story. Each pic is uploaded full size, and can be as large as 480K.

Pictures of the overall cover, consisting of 30 squares: pic 1 - pic 2 - pic 3

Below is a picture of the whole square, followed by closeups of the damaged areas on that square. Order of the pictures is counting from the top left, going left to right, then the next row going from left to right, etc. using the previous pictures of the whole cover as a reference.

Square 1: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 2: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 3: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 4: problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 5: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 6: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 7: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 8: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 9: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 10: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 11: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 12: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 13: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 14 (replaced in 2002): no problem area - 4 corners for comparison
Square 15: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 16: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 17: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 18: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 19: problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 20: problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 21: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 22: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 23: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 24: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 25: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 26: problem area - problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 27: problem area - problem area - problem area
Square 28: problem area - problem area
Square 29: problem area - problem area
Square 30: problem area - problem area - problem area

Return to Index

Team USPS Ensuring Armstrong Win

MSNBC has an excellent article detailing the strategy and importance of the support team in the Tour de France:

The Tour de France stages Friday and Saturday went so perfectly for Lance Armstrong and team USPS that they were almost non-events. It�s one thing to watch a team eviscerate its rivals with a tactically flawless ride on one stage. But to see the same technique applied two days in a row, with the same textbook precision, is uncanny. It also makes a statement: Lance and the Blue Train are the deadliest combination at this year�s Tour.

Unlike previous years, I don�t think Lance is the strongest rider in this year�s field. But with the way the Blue Train is riding, we might never get to see just how Lance measures up to his rivals. By the time they hit Wednesday�s mountain time trial on l�Alpe d�Huez, Lance�s challengers may be so physically broken and demoralized they may not have the spirit to give 100 percent.

It's nice to see an article about the team instead of focusing on the more visible star.

In a Fight with GI Joe, Who Would Win?

Those wacky toy-makers at Hero Builders have done it again. Get your very own talking Jesus action figure.

That's right -- now your child can hear Jesus recite the ten commandments.

Somehow, if I were a kid I just don't think I'd get too excited about this one.

On the other hand, for Father's Day I got the
official Aviator George W. Bush action figure from KB Toys.

Jealous?

News Roundup

French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie says that France stands ready to use nuclear weapons to defend itself and its neighbors (even Germany):

She said that rogue states "could one day point their missiles toward France and its neighbours. We could say to those countries: 'Watch out, if you try to carry out your threats we will destroy you before you know what's hit you."

But wait, that would be preemption, wouldn't it? Why, that's a Bush policy. Mon du!

Speaking of France, if you've been paying attention, they you'll have noticed that more French Jews are immigrating to Israel and buying property in preparation for immigrating in record numbers. Now comes the news that for Jews, Belgium is no better than France.

Here at home, Nader says that Democrats are afraid of democracy. Now that's what I call irony -- Nader being the closest national figure who is an avowed socialist.

Clifford May notes that there isn't too much about terrorism in Clinton's My Life. His first mention of terrorism is on page 574 and al Qaeda doesn't appear until page 797.

Seven-year-old Kayla Williamson collects eggs from the hen-house and sells them, so she was understandably upset when she found a six-foot black snake gorging itself on her eggs. So she shot and killed it. Last year, Kayla killed her first deer with a single shot from 50 yards. Now that's gun control!

A new study found that the two ingredients most commonly used in cough syrup are no more effective than sugar water in suppressing night-time coughing in children. The ingredients were dextromethorphan -- often listed on labels as "DM" -- and diphenhydramine, an antihistamine.

Soso Whaley is finishing up her documentary of her fast-food experience: she dropped 18 pounds while eating off the menu at McDonald's for two months.

Bikini Show in Brasil

Now this is a hellofa bikini. And so is the next one in the slideshow. And the next. And .... well, you get the picture.

Hippie-trampling Is Fun!

Mr. Ed is getting a makeover to update him to the wild and crazy 21st century. Sara Paxton (who will play the lead as the daughter of Wilbur) says that her character is a kind of wild and crazy party girl who is sent to the country to calm down. But wait, there's more!

The new Mr. Ed has his own wild ways, too. "Mr. Ed now is played by Sherman Hemsley [The Jeffersons], and he's kind of like the hip Mr. Ed," Paxton said. "He was a police horse in New York City. He likes to trample the peace-loving hippies. He's wild and crazy and fun."

Yep, nothin' like a summer afternoon of trampling a bunch of dirty hippies for a real rockin' good time. I hope they carry Greenpeace signs -- I might actually watch that.

Paxton added that the pilot features computer-animated enhancements to make Mr. Ed talk. "It was really hard to train the horse to get in that exact position" for the CG, she added.

Does that mean it wasn't hard to train the horse to trample hippies?

Fox has not yet picked up Mr. Ed as a series.

Whoa, there's a shocker. As Advised by Wolves puts it, "They canceled Firefly for this crap?"

Full disclosure: I used to be a hippie.

Last Wish Unfulfilled

A Ohio woman died before she could perform one last act of patriotism:

A Columbus woman's wish to vote for President Bush in November died with her.

In her final weeks, Pat Halach, 82, asked family members to find out whether she could vote early. She died Monday.

Her son contacted state and federal officials, but because ballots aren't finalized until September, county election officials said their hands were tied.

Her daughter, Mary King, said she remembers her mother's lifelong patriotism.

"She adored red, white and blue,'' said King, 47, of Columbus.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mrs. Halach and her family.

But I can't resist pointing out that if she were a Democrat, she could still vote in the next few elections.

Arabic Boobs

Checking the referrer logs brought quite a shock when I found that I am the second link listed at what seems to be Google for Arabs when searching for "boobs".

Liberals Lose

Ari Fleischer resigned his post of White House Press Secretary last summer. This week he won $50,000 for the March of Dimes playing Jeopardy! during "Power Players Week". He was pitted against cable news liberal mouthpieces personalities Ashleigh Banfield and Aaron Brown.

"The questions were a whole lot easier, and the rewards for answering correctly were a whole lot better," Fleischer said about his game-show appearance, which was televised last night.

"Cell Phones for Soldiers"

A 13-year-old girl and her brother started something called Cell Phones for Soldiers to help making calling home from Iraq a lot easier. I saw her today on the Fox Morning Show telling how she got started (with a $21 bank deposit) and that she got a call from the president last week.

Sounds like a damn fine cause to donate to.

Depressed Pet Owners

A new Australian study is exploding a myth by finding that elderly pet owners are more likely to be depressed and in poorer physical health than their pet-free counterparts. They are also more likely to be aggressive and hostile towards the world:

The study found older pet owners, most of them cat and dog owners, were more likely to be depressed, and to take more pain-killers than people who did not own pets; and female pet owners were in worse physical health than their pet-free counterparts.

The pet owners were more likely to be loners who "liked others to be afraid of them", and "preferred to go their own way". And they visited the doctor just as often as the pet-free, contrary to other studies.

This isn't the first study to suggest that what is "common knowledge" may not be true:

The findings are in line with research published last year by Dr Parslow and Professor Anthony Jorm, also a devoted dog owner, which showed pet owners did not have lower blood pressure than non-owners, and were not at lower risk of heart disease as had previously been claimed. In fact pet owners had higher blood pressure, were heavier, and more likely to smoke.

Going Where Jewelry Has Never Gone Before

Leave it to the Dutch -- they've invented "eyeball jewelry:

The procedure involves inserting a 3.5 mm (0.13 inch) wide piece of specially developed jewellery -- the range includes a glittering half-moon or heart -- into the eye's mucous membrane under local anaesthetic at a cost of 500 to 1,000 euros (270 to 540 pounds).

"In my view it is a little more subtle than (body) piercing. It is a bit of a fun thing and a very personal thing for people," said Gerrit Melles, director of the Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery.

It only takes 15 minutes.

The TV is Not a Babysitter!

Television "rewires" the brain as it is developing:

The study of 1,300 kids found that 1-year-olds and 3-year-olds who watched just one hour of television daily had 10 percent more risk of attention problems by age 7 than children who watched no television at all. And the more television, the more risk. One-year-olds who watched three to four hours of television had a 30 percent to 40 percent increased risk of attention problems compared to children whose parents kept the TV off.

One mom heard about the study and took her child from a daily dose 5 hours of TV to one overnight, and was surprised at how easy it was.

I just gotta get me . . .

. . . one of these here "hidden genius" machines, by golly!

Infinite number of monkeys . . .

I get spam. No really, I mean I really get spam. Every day, all day, all night.

I check my email the last thing before I leave work to clear it out and by the next morning there are hundreds more messages telling me how to improve my life. Every day, and throughout the day, I scan down the subject lines just to make certain I'm not deleting something important.

It's beginning to have a effect. I mean, how many times can you read that you've got "a small dickee" before you start to believe it? No one ever told me that before, but what if "Size really does matter!"? Perhaps I should get some of that herbal Zoloft or Prozac to make my life all better. Why not both?

But what I really love are the spammers that generate random words in the subject in the hope that they will fool the spam filters. Usually it's garbage, but sometimes there are some good ones.

Today's random spam message is scrotum farsighted.

That just kills me!

Not Quite as Good as Two Heads

A kitten with four ears was born in Germany six months ago, and now has a new home:

I Should Have Been a Nurse

Heavens to murgatroid, this is certainly depressing:

City & Guilds� Happiness Index - Happiest Workers
Position	Profession	Vocational/Academic	% Very Happy
1	Care Assistants	Vocational	40%
2	Hairdressers	Vocational	32%
3	Plumbers	Vocational	32%
4	Chefs	Vocational	30%
5	Florists	Vocational	20%
6	Chartered Engineers	Professional	18%
7	Lawyers	Professional	16%
8	Mechanics	Vocational	14%
9	IT Specialists	Professional	14%
10	Scientists/R&D	Professional	14%
11	Secretaries/receptionists	Vocational	13%
12	Butchers	Vocational	12%
13	Builders	Vocational	10%
14	Teachers	Professional	8%
15	Architects	Professional	8%
16	Electricians	Vocational	6%
17	Accountants	Professional	4%
18	Pharmacists	Professional	4%
19	Media	Professional	4%
20	Estate agents	Professional	4%

I wonder where postal workers rate?

Circumcise Your Kids

Aids risk 'cut by circumcision' (no pun intended):

Men who have been circumcised may be six times less likely to contract the HIV virus than uncircumcised men, research carried out in India suggests. . . .

A number of studies have shown that circumcision appears to lower the chances of contracting HIV.

Who's Giving

A new site I just discovered (courtesy of SF Gate.com) allows you to enter your address and see which of your neighbors are donating money, to whom and how much. It's called Fundrace.org.

Of course, the information is only as complete as the reporting -- I am not listed. Still, it's kinda fun and a nice alternative from OpenSecrets.org.

Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News!

Doctor prescribes cheating to remedy dull sex

A German psychologist has concluded long-term relationships and good sex are "an impossible combination." Dr Michael Mary says following years of research as a sex therapist in Berlin he has found trying to continue having satisfying sex in an exclusive relationship is futile.

His recipe for getting boring love life going again is to cheat on your partner.

He said: "It is impossible to get everything together. To have trust and harmony and at the same time the level of passion and desire one experiences on the first day simply doesn't exist."

Dr Mary, who has recently published a book called "Five Lies Concerning Love", also warned that putting a lot of effort into working towards creating a fulfilled sex life in long-term relationships was for nothing.

He stated: "It is better to accept living with the discrepancy between sexual desire and long-term love."

Now if we can only get this guy published in Cosmo . . .

Happy Birthday, Opie!

Ron Howard turns 50 years old today, but has remained true to his "Opie roots":

Over the years, Howard has taken on other roles, other personas. He became a director, a filmmaker, a visionary. He took moviegoers from a retirement home in Florida ("Cocoon") to the dark side of the moon ("Apollo 13") to the darker side of genius ("A Brilliant Mind"). People respect him for his talent and abilities, and a few probably call him "Mr. Howard."

But at his core, he has remained Opie. Thanks to parents with a keen understanding of the entertainment business and a strong commitment to family, Howard is a poster boy for normalcy. Other child stars may have gone off the deep end, but Howard never has.

When we realize that Howard married his high school sweetheart and that the 29-year marriage, by all accounts, remains strong, we don't know what's more amazing: that the marriage has endured without scandal or that Howard attended public school.

The school and the marriage are something Opie would have done, graduating from old Mayberry Union High, marrying Mary Alice Carter, buying a home not far from Andy's, and raising a whole bunch of young'uns for Aunt Bee to spoil.

And who else, other than Opie, would stay so loyal to his brother? Ron has included his younger brother Clint in every film he has made. He also helped get Clint into rehab a few years back when he fell prey to the child-star curse.

Pretty amazing stuff.

Dangerous Sports

You just wouldn't think that flying a kite is all that dangerous, but evidently it can be:

Seven people were killed and more than 100 injured in Pakistan during the annual kite flying festival marking the arrival of spring, officials said on Sunday.

An 18 month-old girl's throat was cut by a stray kite string while she was travelling with her parents on a motorbike, witnesses said, adding that she died on the spot.

Three people were electrocuted when metal wires they were using to fly or catch stray kites fell on live electric lines and two people fell from roofs, hospital officials said.

Another 12 year-old boy died while trying to catch a stray kite when he was hit by a car on a main road, police said.

More than 100 people have been reported injured since Saturday night in various kite-related accidents, medical workers said.

Hornet for Sale

Wouldn't this be nice:

Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For sale, right now, on eBay, one former Blue Angel F/A-18A Hornet. ...

If you�re going to need the thing assembled, painted and certified ready-to-fly, though, it�s going to cost you another $8 million. And only legal U.S. residents can bid.

Still, that�s a bargain. An F/A-18 in 1997 cost Uncle Sam a cool $28 million, according to the Blue Angels� official Web site. ...

�This thing obviously slipped through the system somehow,� Landa said, adding that it was �released during the Clinton management era.�

Normally, the Navy doesn�t just give away or sell such advanced military equipment. ...

Deep pockets are a must; a Blue Angels� Hornet can burn 1,300 gallons of jet fuel during the time it takes for a typical air show. That costs the government, which buys JP-5 fuel in bulk, roughly $1,378. ...

He said he is in the process of selling an F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter and Russian MiG- 29s. But the Hornet will be special to a war-bird collector. �They can say it�s a former Blue Angel,� he said. �The only one in existence. Probably the only one that ever will be.�

Happy, Shiny People

Last month, Gallup found that once again America is just jammed full of happy people, with 95% saying they were "very happy" or "fairly happy", and 88% saying they were were either very or somewhat satisfied.

A majority of most major groups in society -- men, women, whites, nonwhites, young, old -- tell Gallup they are very happy. Gallup finds no significant difference in the percentage of people falling into these categories who say they are very happy.

So, that whole "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" thing seems to be working out.

Among other findings, income is not a differentiator in happiness until it drops below $30,000, but predictably enough satisfaction increases with income. In spite of all the jokes about getting married, single people are less likely to be "very" happy.

However, one differentiator clearly shows through. Republicans are more likely to be deeply happy than Democrats or Independents. Gallup doesn't know why, but it's been that way for years.

Percentage Very Happy, by Party ID

	Republican %	Independent %	Democrat %
2003 Dec 11-14	62	49	50
2002 Dec 5-8	59	42	46
2001 Nov 8-11	42	33	37
2000 Oct 6-9	53	44	45
1996 Mar 8-10	52	46	50

No wonder Primal Scream Dean appealed to so many Lefties!

Bovine Fraud

Up in Yankee country

Three livestock exhibitors at last year's Ohio State Fair have been disqualified for allegedly outfitting their Holstein cows with hairpieces.

State Fair inspectors said the three glued or painted hair from another part of the animal or from another animal to create straighter backs on the cows and enhance their appearance in the show ring.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

In his seven years as a lifeguard, Ronald Reagan saved 77 people from drowning. He went on to battle communism in Hollywood and win the cold war.

During his long and distinguished career, the greatest president of the 20th century gave us some great quotes:

When you see all that rhetorical smoke billowing up from the Democrats, well ladies and gentleman, I'd follow the example of their nominee; don't inhale.
-- Republican National Convention, 1992.

I hope you're all Republicans.
-- To surgeons as he entered the operating room, March 30, 1981

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.
-- Normandy, France, June 6, 1984.

The other day, someone told me the difference between a democracy and a people's democracy. It's the same difference between a jacket and a straitjacket.
-- Remarks at Human Rights Day event, December 10, 1986

Happy birthday, Mr. President, and thank you.

Oh -- and congratulations to the Reagan Middle School eighth grade girls basketball team who remains unbeaten.

"Malfunctioning" clothing

I can't believe the number of people that are still arguing about whether or not the boob-tube boob exposure during the Superbowl halftime show was intentional or not. I talked to people just last night who swore that Justin was just trying to pull off the black part of the bustier, but "accidentally" pulled of the red part as well.

Bull.

As a man who has spent a lifetime trying to get clothing off of certain portions of women's anatomy, I can say with absolute authority -- those things just don't come off so easily.

I hope that settles it.

Boob Tube Review

TiVo reports that the "wardrobe malfunction" moment of the Superbowl halftime show was "the most replayed moment not only of the Super Bowl but of all TV moments that the young company has ever measured" in its three-year history.

TiVo's top two commercials, based on user behavior, are both from Bud Light: a romantic sleigh ride interrupted by a flatulent horse and a sharp-toothed dog demonstrating his unusual way of scoring a beer for his master.

My favorite was actually the donkey Clydesdale, although Cadillac gets points for both the water-vapor soaking the desert (for special effects) and the faster than the speed of sound (where the guy mouths "Wow" and it catches up to him a few seconds later).

Repost: Because I Really Need the Help

What do these four books have in common (besides the author)?

• Emile or on Education
• Social Contract
• Confessions
• Reveries of a Solitary Walker

I find myself in the rather uncomfortable position of needing to read these four books by some dead French guy Jean Jacques Rousseau and writing a 25-page paper on a topic that ties all four books together.

Now I don't mind reading this dead French guy Rousseau as I am gaining much insight into the inner workings of the liberal mind. Rousseau was, I am told, the intellectual father of the French revolution and the foundation of American liberalism (which is very much in evidence as I read his works). He is also the seed from which grew Marxism and Communism and is therefore arguably responsible for the death of 100 million people or so, but I digress for that is another topic entirely.

I am halfway through Emile (just chock full of California-style hug-a-kid, build esteem, don't give grades pedagogical theory). I am very much looking forward to Social Contract as that is where (I hope) Rousseau more clearly puts forth his political theories. And I look forward with great anticipation to each class when we discuss what we've read (even though we do things like spend 20 minutes on a single paragraph and we run out of time each and every class. Four books of this magnitude in one semester is too much because so many of the nuances will be left undiscovered.) In other words, I am enjoying the class immensely.

But what I do not want to do is get halfway through the last book before discovering a "common theme" and figuring out what to write my paper on, and then have to wade through a couple of thousand pages of this stuff again in researching the paper, all in the last couple of weeks before the deadline.

So please, can someone from a more educated background suggest a topic for this paper? It must "tie together" all four books and cannot be less than nor more than 25 pages. More than that I cannot say because the professor is being pretty cagey about it (I suspect he does not want to influence our decision).

Where's the Beef Bison?

The silly mad cow scare has some Americans showing a renewed interest in bison meat (and it's "Atkins diet-friendly"), but don't look for a stampede to bison any time soon.

Bison meat, higher in iron than beef, can be difficult to find on store shelves and commands a premium in restaurants and supermarkets compared to a similar cut of beef. At Denver-area grocery stores, ground bison was selling for $5.99 per pound, compared to $4.69 per pound for 93 percent lean ground beef.

A recent poll conducted by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association indicated most Americans still believe the beef supply is safe. Bison producers, fearing a chilling effect for their product, say they wouldn't want that to change.

I like bison, but would rather have ostrich. Now that makes for goooood fajitas!

More Evil than was Known

Stories from Holocaust survivors have been collected from Jews who were the victims of grisly medical experiments. The number of respondents have caused some to question whether the magnitude of the experiments has been underestimated.

Data collected from the claimants show there were about 178 different types of medical experiments conducted in more than 30 camps and ghettos. Some victims were not Jewish, including a group of Polish nuns, Taylor said.

One 82-year-old man described an experiment in which Nazi dogs with poison on their teeth were let loose to chase him and another man and rip flesh from their legs.

A 73-year-old woman told of Mengele pulling her from a line of people headed to the gas chambers at Auschwitz to go to his laboratory, where she was injected with drugs and chemicals and "they made cuts into my body and left the wounds open for them to study."

"I was used as a guinea pig for medical experiments," she writes. At another point, she says, "As bad as the experiments were, without them I would not be here today to write this."

How does the Left justify equating Bush to Hitler?

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

One can get a little too laid back in ones duties, even it you are handling highly dangerous objects:

Workers at a Texas nuclear-weapons facility risked an explosion this month by taping together broken pieces of high explosive being removed from the plutonium trigger of an old warhead, federal investigators said.

The concern, it seems, it that taping up the explosive increased the risk that the techs would drop it and set off a "violent reaction".

Such a reaction could have "potentially unacceptable consequences," board Chairman John T. Conway. . .

Ya think?

No word on whether the techs used duct tape, the single most useful invention of man to date.

Supporting the Right Charity

It's nice to read good stories in the news every once in a while:

The Salvation Army announced Tuesday that it is receiving the largest gift ever given to a charity - a donation likely to exceed $1.5 billion from the estate of Joan B. Kroc, widow of the founder of McDonald's Corp.

Salvation Army officials say the exact size of the gift won't be known until administration of Kroc's estate is complete, which could take several months.

The gift is for development of community centers across the country, similar to the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center that opened in San Diego in June 2002. The Kroc center offers educational, recreational and cultural arts programs.

I've always like the Salvation Army. Those people are dedicated.

Seeing Liberals as Disgusting is a Healthy Thing

A new study quantitatively demonstrates that disgust is "an evolved response that protects people from disease or harm".

So listening to Dean and having a sudden urge to hurl is really just a protection mechanism.

Must See Art

There is no way that you can watch the first thirty seconds of this video and not watch the entire thing. It's an artist doing his thing. After a while you just kind go, "Wow!"

Hat tip to Tone the Man.

Wait to make that Digital Camera Purchase!

Your APS (Advanced Photo System) camera will soon be as useful as a beta-max. Kodak announced that they will no longer make APS cameras, and will stop making 35mm cameras in the U.S., Canada and Europe. They are shifting their focus to digital cameras.

Canon announced that they will release nearly 20 new digital cameras in 2004 in an aggressive attempt to grab more market share. This is sure to spur the competition into tossing out new cameras to match the threat or to aggressively slash prices to keep market share. Whatever happens, the consumer stands to benefit.

Cannon also announced three new digital camcorders, feature-packed and ranging in price from $400 to $600.

Name Stats

According to Name Statistics only .003% of the people in the US share my surname -- or about 7,500 people.

It works for first names, too. Check it out.

Hat tip to Voluntarily in China.

Neuticles

Ever feel guilty for that first trip to the vet with your male puppy? Now there's a solution -- neuticles!

"It took two years to get developed," Miller says. "The reason why I came out with it was the trauma that I went through neutering my bloodhound Buck."

Miller asked his vet if there was any implant "so Buck can look the same afterwards". There was nothing. So after a $670,000 investment, Miller's company Canine Testicular Implantation Corp carried out its first "neuticle" implant on a rottweiler named Max in 1995. [SNIP ( - no pun intended)]

"It's a male thing," says Miller. "If I lost mine, I would want them to be replaced with the implants."

Miller's business has taken off so much that now he is being asked to provide implants for cats, horses and even bulls in Spain. One man in Colorado wanted implants for two water buffaloes and the University of Louisiana sought neuticles for 25 rats.

"We do a lot of horses, a lot of bulls. But 90 per cent of our business is with dogs," he says.

But some owners go too far and seek neuticles that are too big for the dog. Miller is disgusted. "We really try to make sure that the pet is properly sized before we send them out," he insists.

Pit Yorkie?

Say Uncle will no doubt approve of this (the intent, anyway):

Good-bye, pit bull. Hello, New Yorkie!

The city's animal-welfare agency is giving the much-maligned breed a public-relations makeover by renaming it after another species (of person) that's also unfairly tagged as mean and snarly.

...New Yorkers, like pit bulls, are sometimes perceived as a standoffish and mean breed - but are actually "some of the most generous and open-hearted people I've ever met."

In the next few weeks, all official documents for the city's animal shelter will be changed to reflect the kinder, gentler name. But the switch may be too late to help a dozen pit bulls in the Brooklyn and Manhattan shelters who will be killed within days if they aren't adopted.

The reputation resurrection for pit bulls is long overdue, Boks said. More than 6,000 pit bulls pour into the city shelter every year - and about 90 percent end up dead because there aren't enough people willing to adopt one.

In actuality, pit bulls perform higher on behavioral tests than even the family-friendly golden retriever, according to the American Temperament Test Society. Bad owners are the pit bulls' biggest enemy, advocates say - but like New Yorkers, pit bulls can be downright cuddly.

Confused?

Today is the fourth of January. It is a breezy, overcast day in Memphis. In January.

Today, I raked leaves. In shorts and a tee-shirt. In January. Are you hearing me?

Our doors and windows are open and I'm still wearing shorts.

The jonquils are confused:

They are sprouting like it's spring. Who am I to tell them it isn't?

Even the Privets are still putting out berries like it's still fall. Why not?

We had an incredibly mild summer, and now we are having a incredibly mild winter.

Screw the plants. Screw the French. Screw the fact that next summer will be a giant bug-infested misery if we don't get a few weeks of hard freezes.

It's January and I'm in shorts, sitting outside with a perfectly chilled glass of wine*, blogging, and surfing.

Life is good.

 

* Seaview Cabernet Sauvignon from McLaren Vale in South Australia. (Only $8.99 when I bought it.) Screw the French!

Best Movie Speeches

6,500 movie buffs who frequent Blockbuster UK voted on the best film speeches, giving top honors to 'the smell of napalm in the morning' from Apocalypse Now. All speeches in the top twenty were by men, prompting this comment:

"Where are all the great speeches made by women?" said Blockbuster UK's marketing director Sarah Baxter. "I think it's definitely time for the world's great actresses to be given an equal chance."

Yeah, Sarah, but somehow

But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?

resonates better than

As God as my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this, and when it's all over I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill; as God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again.

and a lot better than

Lordy, we got to have a doctor! I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' babies!

Here are the top twenty:

1. Apocalypse Now (1979) Robert Duvall
   Sample: You smell that? Do you smell that? ... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like ... victory. Someday this war's gonna end ...
2. A Few Good Men (1992) Jack Nicholson
   Sample: You can't handle the truth! ... Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You?
3. On the Waterfront (1954) Marlon Brando
   Sample: You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been someone Charley, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. I'm a bum
4. Pulp Fiction (1994) Samuel L Jackson
   Sample: And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brother
5. Wall Street (1987) Michael Douglas
   Sample: The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works
6. Network (1976) Peter Finch
   Sample: I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!"
7. Trainspotting (1996) Ewan McGregor
   Sample: Choose a future. Choose life ... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?
8. Dirty Harry (1971) Clint Eastwood
   Sample: Being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?
9. Withnail and I (1987) Richard E Grant
   Recital of Hamlet in the last reel
10. Braveheart (1995) Mel Gibson
    Sample: Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you'll live ... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all of that from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take away our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
11. Russell Crowe addresses his troops in Gladiator
12. Captain John Miller talks to unit in Saving Private Ryan
13. Kevin Spacey's opening speech in American Beauty
14. James Stewart addresses the loan board in It's a Wonderful Life
15. Dennis Hopper's Sicilian speech in True Romance
16. Gregory Peck delivers his closing argument in To Kill a Mockingbird
17. Orson Welles speaks to his executives in Citizen Kane
18. Gunnery Sgt. Hartman's speech to Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket
19. Principal Joe Clark's speech in Lean on Me
20. Matt Damon's debate in the Harvard bar in Good Will Hunting

Lines that were overlooked:

1. All right, Mr. De Mille. I'm ready for my closeup.
2. What do you mean, I'm funny?...You mean the way I talk? What?...Funny how? I mean, what's funny about it?...But I'm funny how? I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to fuckin' amuse you? What do you mean, funny? Funny how? How'm I funny??...How the fuck am I funny? What the fuck is so funny about me? Tell me? Tell me what's funny!...
3. I thought there's no use getting
   Into heavy petting
   It only leads to trouble
   And seat wetting.

   Now all I want to know is how to go.
   I've tasted blood and I want more. (More, more, more.)
   I'll put up no resistance. I want toasty the distance
   I've got an itch to scratch. I need assistance.

   Toucha toucha toucha touch me
   I want to be dirty
   Thrill me, chill me, fulfill me
   Creature of the night.

   Then if anything grows, while you pose,
   I'll oil you up and rub you down. (Down, down, down.)
   And that's just one small fraction of the main attraction
   You need a friendly hand and I need action.

   Toucha toucha toucha touch me
   I want to be dirty
   Thrill me, chill me, fulfill me
   Creature of the night.

And of course:

4. ...Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Men, all this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight - wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, big league ball players, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost and never will lose a war, because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans. Now, an army is a team - it lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap... Now, we have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world. You know, by God, I actually pity those poor bastards we're goin' up against. By God, I do. We're not just gonna shoot the bastard, we're going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel. Now, some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you'll chicken out under fire. Don't worry about it. I can assure you that you will all do your duty. The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them, spill their blood, shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do. Now there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose and we're gonna kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we're gonna go through him like crap through a goose. Now, there's one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home, and you may thank God for it. Thirty years from now when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee, and he asks you: 'What did you do in the Great World War II?', you won't have to say: 'Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana.' All right, now you sons-of-bitches, you know how I feel and I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle anytime, anywhere. That's all.

Predictions for 2004 and Beyond

1. Dean will get better at controlling his mouth to hold on to the party nomination. After losing by 80 or more electoral votes, he will fade into obscurity with McGovern and the Clintons will succeed in pulling the party back to center in time for Hillary to run for president in 2008.
2. Daschle will lose his re-election bid to Thune, Bobby Jindal will win the Louisiana Senate seat left open by John Breaux. In all, Republicans will pick up four seats in the Senate.
3. Cheney will not drop out of the race due to "health reasons" to make way for VP that is being groomed for the presidency. Instead, Frist will complete his tenure as Senate Majority Leader (which is better training for president than the vice-job) and will begin positioning for a run in 2008 against Hillary.
4. Ed Bryant will run for Frist's seat in 2006 -- and win.
5. Bush will not announce plans to colonize the moon or man an expedition to Mars. There may be a shakeup at NASA and (hopefully) a redefinition of direction, but nothing that major.
6. Iraq will hold free elections in October, just in time to upstage Dean.
7. Everyone but France will stop talking about Kyoto as the true cost/benefit soaks into the public's consciousness.
8. Liberal Radio will become another failed dream.
9. With the Senate more firmly controlled by Republicans (with a 55-member majority), campaign finance will be revisited in 2005 with the aim to stop billionaires from controlling elections.
10. Also, the rules for "advise and consent" for judicial nominees will be restructured by 2006.
11. The DOW will increase to 11400 by year's end but will not establish a historical high. The NASDAQ will hit 2800.
12. The stocks to be in will be banks and biotech. Oh -- and wireless technology. Expect to see decent wireless modem access by the end of 2006. Also, the buzzwords of the year will be "grid computing" and "voice over IP".
13. It will be the year of the Athlon 64 processor as more software is written to take advantage of 64-bit processing. This will keep AMD alive and competitive for now.
14. Spam will move offshore. There will be no noticeable slowing of the deluge.
15. Spam controls and lapsing of internet tax moratorium were only the beginning. Congress will begin trying to regulate the internet, promising to eliminate the "digital divide" and control porn. Both initiatives will fail but will play well with voters.
16. The RIAA will scale back activities as internet music sites explode -- everyone from Costco to Joe's Garage will set up a site. But by year-end there will be consolidation in the industry.
17. Job needs in the tech sector will continue to grow, creating a crisis that will finally be addressed by Congress in 2005 when they rework requirements for H1B visas. As they will try to address all immigration problems at once they will only succeed in making the world's most complex immigrant program even more complex, to the point where only lawyers will benefit.
18. Yasser Arafat will finally die, a bloody power struggle will ensue and the person that takes his place will be an even bigger thug. Israel will make great progress on the security fence and the results will be very good. But there will be no progress on the "roadmap".
19. Tre Hargett will become Majority Leader of the TN House as Republicans finally take control. Neifeh loses his re-election bid.
20. I will return to school to work on a masters degree in Political Science. I will quickly change my mind because I must work to support my addiction, blogging, and will find that I cannot do all three (work, school, blog). I will then attempt to establish a 12-step program to help bloggers control their addiction, but will fail because I will blog everything I do.
21. My wife will, inexplicably, continue to support me in everything I do.

Update: I've decided to add a few:

22. Kurds will be given semi-autonomy in the new government of Iraq, which will prove to be a mistake. (Of course, not giving them autonomy could be predicted to be a mistake. No matter which way it goes, someone isn't going to like it and make trouble, so any prognosticator can point at it and say, "See? I told you so!")
23. U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair will rebound from his current problems and begin to remake his party. I hope that he will take it Right, but of course he won't.
24. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder will lose the next election and his Social Democrat party will take a beating as well.
25. Russian President Vladimir Putin will continue to take control of the country to the point of making a mockery of democracy. It will all be fine -- for now. If anything happens to him the resulting power struggle could prove dangerous to that part of the world.
26. All attempts at passing an EU constitution will fail next year -- and probably the next as well.
27. China's first fumbling attempts at allowing private property will be successful and exceed the governments expectations. But no further changes will be implemented in 2004.
28. There will be a major terrorist attack on American interests, probably on the east coast, in an attempt to influence the election. Failure of the attack will ensure a Bush landslide. But the thing is, depending on how it is handled, even a successful attack may lead to a Bush landslide if the Democrat nominee is perceived as weak on Homeland Security.
29. The pope will die. Francis Arinze from Nigeria will not be selected to take his place (he's black). Instead, it will be Dionigi Tettamanzi.
30. Osama bin Laden will be found alive in the badlands of Pakistan. He will be killed during the capture attempt.
31. Iran will make no progress towards democracy. Dissent inside the country will appear to be disorganized and ineffective as the mullahs continue to come down hard on protesters and activists.
32. North Korea will continue to stall. Each time a multinational conference is about to take place, North Korea will find a way to derail it. Washington will pressure China. China will pressure North Korea, but not too much. It is in China's interest to have Bush lose.

Ram Tough!

Now this is why I love my Durango!

In a collision that gives new meaning to the slogan "Ram Tough," a 2001 Dodge Durango SUV plowed into the side of a hulking armored car in Queens yesterday - knocking the massive money carrier on its side.

After felling the bullet-proof behemoth, the SUV sustained a crumpled front end, but the window glass wasn't even broken and the wheels still appeared to be in place. "They collided and it looked like the armored car lost," said an NYPD detective who investigated the crash.

The SUV passengers, 75-year-old Costis Caviris of Mattituck, L.I., and his wife, Mary, were not seriously injured in the wreck - and had no trouble walking away from the crash zone.

Meanwhile, the three armed guards in the car, which was operated by American Armored of Westchester, had to be extricated by firefighters with special equipment.

Most Admired

According to the latest Gallup poll:

Gallup's annual poll of the most admired people in the world shows George W. Bush receiving the distinction as most admired man in the eyes of the American public for the third consecutive year, and Hillary Rodham Clinton as the consensus choice for most admired woman for the sixth time, and for the first time since 2000.

My personal hero, brainchild Karl Rove, did not make the top ten. Maybe next year, Karl.

FedKinko or KinEx?

FedEx is to purchase Kinko's for $2.4 billion in cash.

"The FedEx and Kinko's combination will substantially increase our retail presence worldwide and will enable both companies to take advantage of growth opportunities in the fast-moving digital economy," said Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx Corp.

The 1,200 Kinko's locations worldwide will offer new or expanded FedEx shipping options. More than 400 of them are open 24 hours a day. [SNIP]

FedEx has been Kinko's exclusive shipping provider since 1988 and operates staffed counters in 134 Kinko's stores. After the purchase, FedEx will have full-service counters in all Kinko's stores.

Taxpayer's Biggest Errors

An article that lists the top seven mistakes made by taxpayers:

1. Bad math. This includes checking forms sent to you by the IRS -- they have been known to make errors of their own.
2. Forgetting about interest and dividends. The IRS gets notices of these payments and attempts to match them to the returns they receive. If you leave something out, you very well may get a notice for unpaid tax and interest on the amount. Of course:

   Unfortunately, according to the General Accounting Office, the government agency that audits the IRS, about half the 10 million correction notices the IRS issues each year are "incorrect, unresponsive, unclear, or incomplete.

3. Not properly tracking investment 'basis'. This gets tough as time passes and things like partial sales and reinvestments take place.
4. Getting married. There is still a tax penalty for couples with both partners working. You may want to wait until after the holidays to get married.

   However, high-income earners who marry will lose write-offs for personal exemptions faster than their single counterparts. Marriage may also wipe out potential IRA deductions. Of course, if only one partner is employed, marriage would provide a tax savings. They could file jointly, at rates lower than for single taxpayers.

5. Losing track of receipts.

   Remember, the IRS is a paper-based bureaucracy. Separate your receipts and checks by deductible category and make any audit easier for the auditor. The easier you make it for them, the more they believe and accept that you know what you are doing, and the easier they will make it on you.

6. Failing to bunch deductions (like medical -- get the work done in one year to exceed the minimum amount).
7. Forgetting to donate unwanted items to charity before Dec. 31

Regift

Bill Dodd, an inventor from Atlanta, has patented a way to make "regifting" easy.

Dodd was granted a patent for an online regifting method that would work this way: You receive an e-mail, notifying you that a gift has been purchased for you. You get several choices, in a limited time frame: accept it, return it, exchange it, or pass it to someone else. The beauty of this is you never have to touch the unwanted gift. And if the merchant sets it up right, you could regift without anyone catching on.

Some will decry regifting as the height of rudeness--or at least laziness. They could be right. But for others, harried for time, bereft of good gift ideas or merely cheap, this could be the answer to prayers. Think of it: There would be no unwanted scented bubble bath sets or ice buckets languishing in closets, while you rack your brain for a proper regiftee. (Some polls say about a third of Americans admit to regifting. The suspicion here: The rest are lying.)

Sounds like a fine idea to me.

Some Research Just Sounds Stupid

So who would pay scientists to get worms drunk? What moron would approve funding for a project that spent six years getting hundreds of thousands of worms drunk? Gee, they found that drunk worms were less active, moved slower and "more awkwardly", and laid few eggs. One is inclined to exclaim, "Duh!"

But now this:

Researchers found a gene responsible for drunkenness in worms after plying thousands of the tiny creatures with booze, a discovery that could boost the fight against alcoholism.

The experiment was conducted by University of California, San Francisco researchers and was to be published Friday in the science journal Cell.

Because it is believed that alcohol affects all animals similarly, humans, like worms, may also possess a single gene responsible for drunkenness.

"Our end goal is to find a way to cure alcoholism and drug abuse," Dr. Steven McIntire said. "We hope to develop effective therapeutics to improve the ability of people to stop drinking."

Yeah, it still sounds stupid, and it's a far cry from people -- but what if? That's what research is all about.

Note: This post is not meant to imply any support for government-funded research projects. It's just an observation.

Blondes Make Good Drivers

Suncorp, a "leading insurance company", released the results of a survey:

The nationwide study of car accident trends found that people who described themselves as blonde had fewer crashes than others. They were also less likely to be the victims of road rage and second least likely to feel rage against other drivers.

But the study found fiery redheads lived up to their reputation with red-haired women admitting they were the most likely of all respondents to feel fury on the road.

"As a group, blonde men and women came out on top in the driving stakes," Suncorp personal insurance spokesman Warren Duke said. "But the best drivers of all were black-haired women with only 47 per cent stating they had ever been involved in an accident. Red and black-haired men tied for the title of the most car accident prone."

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the History News Network comes an interesting and enlightening article about the Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving.

If at this late date you are looking for something good to make, Dizzy Girl posts all of her recipes for her Thanksgiving Day feast.

Green Bay Leads in Soup Bowl

Nope -- it's not a joke.

Campbell's Soup (in conjunction with the NFL) is donating up to 5 million cans of soup in a promotion they call Click for Cans.

They donate a can of soup for every person that clicks to their site and chooses an NFL team. The can is then associated with the team so the whole thing works like a giant internet poll.

As of this writing, Green Bay has almost 250,000 cans, KC is second with close to 215,000, and the Vikings are third with just shy of 159,000.

My favorite teams rank fifth (Titans with just over 51,000) and seventh (Cowboys with more than 46,000).

What'sa matta you? Make a difference -- click over, and get a can of soup donated to someone in need.

And pick the Titans, will you?

Hat tip to Indigo Insights.

'Really Stupid People' Roundup

In Modesto, California, a bank robber forgot to cut eye holes for his mask:

Police said a masked man who robbed a Modesto bank Monday forgot to cut eye holes into his disguise, occasionally lifting up a corner of the flannel cloth to see his feet as he fumbled his way through the heist, and crashing into the Oak Valley Community Bank's steel door frame on the way out

What's worse is that the robbery was successful!

In a black eye for the dead tree media who were so incredibly concerned about "massive protests" in England due to Bush's visit, a mere 200 people turned out for the first protest:

Around 200 protesters gathered at Jubilee Gardens on London's South Bank for a colourful parade.

But organisers from the Stop The War Coalition said they were not concerned with the relatively small number.

Aiden Hutton from Suffolk, who played the role of George Bush in the procession, said: "There have been about 14,000 police, I think that's a wonderful turn-out."

In Russia, a man dies after drinking three half-litre bottles of vodka in less than 40 minutes. But hey, he won the drinking contest! Five other contestents merely ended up in intensive care.

Russians drink the equivalent of 15 litres of pure alcohol per head annually, one of the highest rates in the world. Some experts estimate one in seven Russians is an alcoholic.

And way down in Texas, Jackie Bibby bested his own "world record" by getting nine rattlesnakes in his mouth:

Once the cameras were ready, Bibby quickly banded the snakes together by their rattles and wedged them into his mouth. He leaned forward at the waist and held still for 10 seconds. For the record to be official, Bibby said, each snake has to be at least 26 inches long. Each weighs at least 1.5 pounds.

"There's nothing to it," said Bibby, who admits to being bitten six times in 34 years of snake handling. The only difficult part is leaning forward. "I've got about 15 pounds of snake in my mouth, and it hurts my lower back to lean forward," he said.

There's a picture if you click on the link.

Update: Man chokes to death of a baggie full of marijuana that he was trying to hide from cops.

K Street in Limbo

K Street is a highly experimental show that was never expected to gain a huge audience. It didn't.

Those who watched may be interested in some of the behind-the-scenes information in this article. For everyone else, here's the bottom line:

HBO has not made any official announcement about the future of "K Street," and has been coy about chances of renewal. Mr. Soderbergh is said to have already made other professional commitments. Few expect it to be renewed.

Happy Birthday!

Mickey Mouse turned 75 years old today. You've come a long way, baby!

Bad Flu Season on the Way

The CDC is predicting what could be "a potentially staggering flu season nationwide". Get your flu shot!

Would Thoreau Have Gotten Suspended?

Two Maryland high school students were suspended for their interpretation of a homework assignment.

One girl's English teacher asked the students to perform a "nonconformist act" in the tradition of Thoreau and Emerson. Most students opted for little indiscretions - eating cereal at lunch, for example, or calling teachers by their first names. But Haaser, 17, cooked up something bigger.

The two girls climbed on top of a lunch table and shouted, "End homophobia now!" Then the girls, both of whom describe themselves as heterosexual, made out. Estimates for the length of the kiss range from 10 to 15 seconds.

"It was full on," Pecore said. "It was intense."

There was stunned silence in the crowded cafeteria at first. But soon staff and students at River Hill could talk about little else.

Both girls, who are top students, were quickly suspended.

Taco Bell Wins

Dateline is not a program I usually watch - shows like this and 60 Minutes are really sensationalism wrapped in a thin veil of respectability because they claim to be "news" programs.

But I like this story:

The biggest 10 [fast food] chains have 75,000 restaurants. We couldn�t look at all of them, so we hired a survey company to choose a sample, 100 restaurants from each chain, 1,000 in all, spanning 38 states.

We then collected and examined local health inspection reports for the last year and a half on each of those 1,000 restaurants. Some were inspected just once, some more often during that period. ...

More than sixty percent of all fast food restaurants in our sample had at least one critical violation in the last year and a half.

How many total violations did each chain have? Here comes Dateline�s dirty dining survey � it�s a top 10 list where no fast food restaurant wants to come in number one:

10.	Taco Bell
9.	McDonald's
8.	KFC
7.	Subway
6.	Jack in the Box
5.	Dairy Queen
4.	Hardees
3.	Wendy's
2.	Arby's
1.	Burger King

Quirky

From Beijing:

Half of all Chinese drivers admit to having dozed off behind the wheel at least once since they hit the roads of the world's most accident-prone country, state media said on Saturday.

Headlines, 'cause I'm in a pissy mood again:

The Democrat Danger Zone
Yeah, it's called California, or Detroit, or any one of the other thousand places in America where Democrats have been in charge but now crime is skyrocketing, taxes are through the roof, and the economy is crashing. If a Democrat is in charge then you know you are in a Danger Zone. Duh!

Palestinian Prime Minister Forms Cabinet
No, the correct headline is Arafat Sets Up Another Puppet Cabinet. Get your facts straight!

France reaches out to its elderly
Yeah, 'cause the only ones left are the toughest old birds on the planet. France is afraid of them, having already killed off 15,000 of the weakest ones. Survival of the fittest, baby! A better headline is France Surrenders to Its Elderly.

Former Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello wins pro-statehood nomination
Who cares? We don't want a 51st state and even if we did, it wouldn't be some banana republic wanna-be like Puerto Rico. The only good thing that ever came out of Puerto Rico was a couple of characters on Sanford & Son and Chico and the Man. If you don't want us bombing a useless bit a land that we've been practicing on for decades, then we certainly don't want to fill up our welfare roles with you!

From the Department of the Blindingly Obvious:

• Euro trash
  
• Palestinian Authority funds go to militants
  
• Liberals keep lowering bar
  
• ACLU Leader Criticizes Patriot Act
  
• China expresses 'strong dissatisfaction' with US over Taiwan
  
• Bush could hit 2004 jackpot with stronger economy
  
• Going Beyond Black and White, Hispanics in Census Pick 'Other'
  
• Saudi official blames Riyadh attacks on al Qaeda

From the Office of Redundancy: Desperate Democrats.

Dean's foes show they can't resist playing dirty
Of course! They're Democrats! Duh!

'Let Iraqis clean their own house'
Yeah, there's an idea. Let's leave it up to the people who occupy the nexus of all earthly corruption. Good idea, asshat.

Al-Qaida set to launch psychological warfare in Iraq
That's because they know that Democrats and the media Fifth Column will team up to continuously drag America through the dirt, thus sapping our will and making Iraq like Vietnam for the first time. Asshats!

Court raps mom on homophobic leaflets
Because the mom is in a custody battle for her daughter and the court doesn't want the little girl exposed to anything "that can be considered homophobic". Hello! The highest court in the land told lawmakers to keep out of our bedrooms but there's no problem in adjudicating family values? Does anyone doubt that this "Judge" is a registered Democrat? Is there anyone outside of the incredibly loony Left that does not see how incredibly loony this is? Lefty Asshats!

Judge's Spanish ban causes sad laughter
Just to prove that the Left doesn't have a lock on lunacy, Judge Ronald E. Reagan (you think his parents were Democrats?) ordered the father of a five-year-old girl to speak English to her - not "the Hispanic language". Righty Asshat!

Running as a Son of the South, Edwards Rises to Its Defense and Raises His Profile
This is a guy who would have been kicked out of office after a single term (like the five senators holding his seat before him). Even his own home state doesn't like him. And he thinks he can win any other state in the South with his liberal-lefty voting record? What a moron!

Political terrorism
This would be any statement made by a Democrat!

The Confederate Flap: So Long, Howard & Hello, Hillary?
This isn't a headline - it's a nightmare! Would Hillary run for President even though she keeps saying that she won't? No way!

Black Media Barons Back Sharpton Bid
Gee, guys who made it big race-baiting want to back the world's biggest race-baiter? No way!

Fox's O'Reilly Says He's Misunderstood
Hey, you make four million dollars a year! Get over it!

Fisticuffs Again Bring Venezuela Parliament to Halt
When you've got Venezuelan president Hugo Ch�vez announcing that he's not going to retire until 2021, you've got to expect a little anger among politicians.

Argentina confident about IMF review
That's because any penguin with an igloo to call home could get billions in handouts from the IMF. It's not their money so they don't care!

Bush call for democracy draws scorn from Palestinians
Ya think? These are people who are happy to have "elected" a leader that diverts $100,000 of aid money each month to his wife and daughter in Paris, and is has up to 3 billion dollars stashed away in Swiss bank accounts. These are people who raise their children to hate and to become human bombs and celebrate when they murder women and children. Who cares what they scorn? It's a country full of asshats!

Call-Ups Deplete Veterans Day Parades
Waa! Not enough tanks and Humvees to drive down Main Street for your entertainment. Would someone please tell the Associated Press that we are at war!

Young woman elected homecoming king in Hayward
Hey, something like this happened in California? No way!

Instability spreads as thousands flee from Zimbabwe
Instability in Zimbabwe? No way!

Bush claims credit for upbeat U.S. economic news
Every newspaper in the world slams Bush for a slumping economy as a result of the Clinton Recession and now Left-wing spin machine Reuters wants to make a big deal about Bush taking a little credit? No way!

Newsweek Poll: Economic Gains Bolster Bush
What? You mean Clinton was right when he said "it's the economy stupid"? No way!

300,000 Iraqis May Be in Mass Graves
Saddam slaughtered his people? No way!

Non-US firms frozen out of Iraq
Now that's what I call good unilateralism!

Time for Democrats' rule to end
Finally, a headline that makes sense!

Cocoa for Life

You've heard that a glass of red wine a day is good for you. You've heard that a glass of tea is good for you. You've probably even heard that chocolate can extend your life.

But cocoa is even richer in antoxidants than wine or tea:

A cup of cocoa came out on top. Their study found it was twice as rich in antioxidants as a glass of red wine, up to three times richer than a cup of green tea and up to five times richer than black tea.

Although cocoa is found in many other products, such as chocolate, the researchers said drinking it was the best way of harnessing its health benefits.

If you can't yank it, crank it

Don't listen to your mother, 'cause it doesn't hurt a thing. A new study of 50,000 people in Norway shows that loud music doesn't hurt your hearing after all.

A new Norwegian study suggests that neither rock concerts, discotheques nor loud personal stereos actually damage human hearing. It's more harmful, according to the study, to go hunting.

That's because the sharp sound of shots being fired apparently can hurt hearing more than pounding music.

Beware Catholic Schoolgirls

Girls pummel man who exposed himself:

A man described by authorities as a known sexual predator was chased through the streets of South Philadelphia by an angry crowd of Catholic high school girls, who kicked and punched him after he was tackled by neighbors, police said today.

Hat tip to Advised by Wolves

Miller on CNBC

Dennis Miller is going to get his own political talk show:

Dennis Miller, the sardonic comedian who delivered a fake newscast on "Saturday Night Live" and told jokes in the "Monday Night Football" booth, will host a prime-time political talk show on CNBC.

The network said Thursday it had inked Miller to a multiyear deal for the political chat show, set to begin in January.

Miller said he would work four nights a week at 9 p.m. ET.

This'll give Hannity and Colmes a run for its money, at least for a while.

Competitive Kites

Chilians take kite flying seriously - way seriously.

We don't really think of flying a kite as a competitive sport. But in Chile, not only do you fly your kite - you turn your string into a offensive weapon using glue and pulverized glass, and then using it to saw through the string of other kites.

Last month, a 19-year-old university student was decapitated as he became entangled in a kite string that crossed the road where he was riding his motorcycle.

Wicked.

8 Rules to Continue

Susan Pleshette and James Garner will appear on the ABC sitcom "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" in an effort to transition the show to a new format in the wake of John Ritter's death.

The pair are cast as the separated parents of the newly-widowed mother (played by Katey Sagal) and both will appear in a one-hour special on 4 November. Garner is scheduled for at least another three episodes.

Which Rat Pack Member Are You?

Not a bad quiz, as Quizilla quizzes go.

Which Rat Pack Member Are You?

Hat tip to Oscar Jr. Was Here

Disney Sued

I've long been critical of Disney's namby-pamby indoctrination of our children into political correctness during their formative years. Now a company is striking back:

Caterpillar Inc. has sued to block next week's U.S. release of Disney's "George of the Jungle 2," alleging that the direct-to-DVD movie damages the heavy equipment maker's reputation. The Peoria-based company's trademark infringement lawsuit contends the movie ties Caterpillar to an "evil attacking army" of industrialists seeking to destroy the jungle, a central theme of the Disney sequel. Caterpillar contends the scenes will have a negative effect on children and could affect the company's line of children's products, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Peoria against the Walt Disney Co. and Buena Vista Entertainment.

Bits 'n Pieces

Headline of the Day: Surveys worthless, survey shows

Liechtenstein is a country of 160 sq. km., or about nine-tenths the size of Washington, DC. It has a population of a little over 33,000 people. The monarchy of this teeny, tiny country is blocking entry of ten countries into the European Economic Area because Czechoslovakia confiscated lands (including two castles) after WW II. Even though the ten countries in question will join the EU next year, their membership in the EEA is frozen until this conflict can be resolved. Diplomats are reported to be "frustrated". Heh!

Smith & Wesson is branching out into home decor, clothing and jewelry with a new catalog, just in time for Christmas.

Child star and ex-governor candidate Gary Coleman has a new gig - political analyst on the new All Comedy Radio network. Gary's experience as a candidate is expected to help him. After all, he came in eighth out of 135!

A three-year study of 750 heart patients in nine hospitals and 15 prayer groups around the world (from Christians in Manchester to Buddhists in Nepal) has failed to find any statistical evidence that prayer helps to heal the sick. [Still ... the world could use a little more prayer these days.]

Fijians in one remote mountain village believe that they have been cursed ever since their forefathers killed and ate a missionary 136 years ago. They are going to offer a formal, traditional Fijian apology to the English missionary's descendants, and have invited them to attend the ceremony.

Britain is tired of it and isn't going to take it anymore: incidents of rowdiness, intimidation, littering, drunkenness, drug-taking and vandalism takes place as often as every two second in merry old England, costing an estimated 3.5 billion pounds to deal with or clean up. The government is telling local officials to stop the troublemakers or "face the axe". Remember, this is how Rudy cleaned up New York.

Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in 1975. Next month it will finally be allowed to be shown in Singapore.

This just in from the Department of "Duh!": scientists think that binge drinking by teenagers can cause brain damage.

Heidi Klum has admitted that she was called Zit Face at school.

Words of Wisdom

Joe, you hold on to your pride. Maybe that's all you got. But pride will only take you so far. At some point you have to back up all your bullshit. It ain't no Black Thing. It ain't no White Thing. It's a Green Thing. Become valuable to the world and you get everything you want. If you don't you end up with crack babies and housing projects.

Ted Nugent speaking to a contestant on "Surviving Nugent".

Weekend Roundup

Israel has modified some cruise missiles to carry nuclear warheads on subs, so now they can deliver nuclear death from land, air and sea. This comes on the heels of a statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry that said that every state that harbors terrorist organizations and their leaders are legitimate targets. Also, the Der Spiegel reports that Israel has readied plans for a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

Speaking of Israel, it is rumored that the US will veto a UN resolution condemning the Israeli security fence, and rightly so. Every nation has the right to protect itself. The US has several such fences on its border. Why, even the citizens of the great state of Texas are working on a Great Wall of Texas.

The Giuliani administration successfully cleaned up New York City by vigorously attacking "trivial" crimes, such as the rampant graffiti problem. Howard Dean is praising this form of vandalism as "creative and constructive". But the NY cops busted Dean's "artist" because a detective recognized him from a video of nine subway cars being vandalized in 1999.

While the NY Times lauds the selection of Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi as Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Little Green Footballs reports that there is a real possibility that the staunch peace activist has some anti-American and anti-Israel ideas.

Shopkeepers are having a little trouble accepting the newly designed $20 bill. "It looks like it's gone through the wash and the dye has run," said Park Avenue South art dealer Susan Halper.

Today's Favorite Headline of the Day is a Tie:

• If You Squint, He's Clinton With an Austrian Accent from the LA Times
• Dull man walking: why Gray was too gray from a Neil Cavuto article on Town Hall.

Sun Microsystems seems to be betting the survival of the company on developing "throughput computing" - a chip designed to eliminate the bottleneck of fetches from memory to chip.

Heh - the EU is funding a "school for bimbos" to the tune of a million pounds.

The lawyers that successfully argued for the removal of the Ten Commandments from the public area of the Alabama Supreme Court were denied $76,109 in legal fees. A federal appeals court said that given the expertise of the lawyers in question, 320 billed hours were too many.

The State Deparment has included 4 Jewish internet sites on its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

News Roundup

And so it begins: a "scientific analysis" shows that there are 383,000 "missing" votes in the California recall election.

Qureia tells Arafat he wants to quit as PM. What - already? Arafat must be the world's worst boss.

Now that Bob Graham has removed all doubt about what an ineffective politician he is, Larry Klayman (founder of conservative watchdog group Judical Watch [of which I am a member]) is running for Graham's Senate seat in Florida.

President Bush is asking his advisors to recommend ways of bringing democracy to Cuba. Talk about reaching out to a minority!

Michael O'Donnell, the CEO of Salon Media Group, is leaving the struggling online magazine publisher. He will be replaced as CEO by Salon founder David Talbot. I used to like Salon and was a subscriber, but they went way downhill. I rarely even visit the free section any more.

A Swedish couple went hiking and made an unusual discovery - 70 pairs of shoes, all filled with butter.

A 91-year-old bank robber's spree has ended.

Intuit apologies to its user base and will not use that offensive and overly-restrictive anti-piracy feature that was implemented in the 2003 version of TurboTax.

A coalition of gay advocacy groups is calling for marriage to be de-legalized. They claim this will limit the discrimination against same-sex, unmarried couples.

Ouch!

Serenity's back in fine form after her move to God's Country. She has a scathing response to a comment left on a blog somewhere out there. She delivers this caustic screed with such contempt and venom that one wonders whether she is trying to quit smoking again. Whatever, it's fun to read.

Hat tip to the Accidental Jedi.

Jackson's New Look

Today is the day that the $20 greenback begins its journey into oblivion. The Fed starts shipping the new design today.

Check out the website devoted to educating people about the new monopoly money. There's an "interactive 20" that actually showed me a couple of things, and some games including one that allows you to design your own bill.

The new look has the same old Jackson on a softer, more pastel background, but not everyone wanted to keep Jackson around:

Not everyone is happy that the redesign didn't excise Jackson himself. For some, the seventh president seems a long leap from the likes of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, what with his support of slavery and Indian wars and his role in the financial panic of 1837. Many have proposed that the late Rev. Martin Luther King take his place. But online bulletin boards also reveal advocates for Britney Spears and Tupac Shakur.

Today's Overview

Today's Must Read (and my nomination to the Watcher's Council this week) is The 'Military Solution' Works from Israpundit. Excellent deconstruction of the 'cycle of violence' myth.

The Quote of the Day comes from Samizdata:

The European Union is yesterday's solution to the day before's problem. It is a sullen, unloved political dinosaur fixed only by a combination of political inertia and the career-ambitions of a cossetted technocratic cadre. It is doomed.

Strongly recommended reading: When Environmentalists Collide... from The Edge of England's Sword. A taste:

Research shows, however, that wind farms are killing far more birds than the public realises. A five-year study in California revealed that the Altamont Pass wind farm kills an average of 40 to 60 golden eagles a year, along with 'several hundred' hawks, falcons and other birds of prey.

In Spain, a report commissioned by the regional government of Navarra concluded that 368 turbines at 10 sites had killed nearly 7,000 wild birds in a single year, including 409 vultures, 24 eagles and 650 bats. In Germany, studies show turbines have killed dozens of rare red kites.

Above Martin Wright's head in Mid-Wales, a dozen of these elegant raptors glide among the unmoving turbines. Red kites are a conservation success story, brought back from the brink of extinction in this area, but two were killed at this small site alone last summer. Other rare British birds are also under threat as the turbines proliferate. There are 400 pairs of golden eagles in the UK and just 25 pairs of sea eagles. ...

But the money quote is at the end:

Martin Wright sums up his concerns:

'Wind farms are an expensive dead end,' says Wright. 'Ten years down the road they will have to concede that wind is not the answer they thought it was, and we will have a lot of tall white elephants all over our hills.'

If only those Welshmen were able to hire Bobby Kennedy Jr, the left-wing environmental activist who is leading the fight against the Cape Cod Wind Farm. It spoils the view for all those rich New England liberals, you see...

Conrad of The Gweilo Diaries opines on the ligitimacy of a White House counsel to review documents before being handed over to the DOJ. Excellent point. He also has an excellent post on the affair in China wherein citizens were horribly infected with HIV.

Who knew? Non-blogging Advised by Wolves informs me that Belligerent Bunny Blog has returned from hiatus and has been blogging now for about three weeks. How can you resist a blog that combines hard-hitting political commentary with orphaned bunnies?

Eco-insanity: NRO lances McCain and Lieberman for their downright silly stances on the so-called 'global warming' thing:

Take Senator McCain, for instance, who used to be opposed to extra energy taxes. He is on record as saying that the reason he became interested in global warming in the first place is because he recognized how much hotter it was getting at his home in Sedona, Ariz. Unfortunately, the data don't back him up on this. If we look at the temperature records from the nearby Childs weather station, we can actually see a downward trend in temperature of slightly over 1� F. since 1986, when McCain was elected to the Senate.

In Other News: Scientists think they have the answer to the vital question of why the cookie crumbles.

What a wild game!

Indy needed 28 points in the 4th Quarter to send the game in overtime. They did just that with two consecutive on-side kicks.

Tampa Bay gets the ball to start OT. They get it to mid-field, but are forced to punt with 4th and 2. But running into the kicker gets Tampa Bay 5 yards, a first down and the Bucs stay alive. But they can�t make another first down and are 58 yards away for a field goal try. The punt goes out of bounds at the 13-yard line.

3rd and 8 � move the sticks
3rd and 11 � move the sticks
3rd and 8 (again) � move the sticks
2nd and 10 � make 20 yards and move the sticks to the Tamp Bay 31.
4th and 1 on the Tampa Bay 22 � 39-yard Field Goal Attempt and Tampa Bay takes a time out.

And it is no good � flag down and it is against Tampa Bay and Indy is still alive. They try again. It hits the right goal post and is deflected in.

Indy Wins.

Posted by Advised by Wolves.

Update: Evidently, there's some kind of baseball thing going on at this time of year.

Quick Hits

Samples of presidential poetry can be found here. (We also learn that "Bush sometimes refers to his wife as a lump in the bed.")

Useful Fools found out that the ACLU Honors Islamofascists.

Rich Lowry has a must-keep list of what Democrats believe.

Mortimer Zuckerman tells us that we must do it right in Iraq:

It took seven years to transfer power in Bosnia--the same as it did for Japan from 1945. The U.N. has been in Kosovo four years, with no prospect of withdrawal. The success in tiny East Timor required two years. So who could imagine we would restore normality so swiftly in Iraq, a large, fractured society that has been physically and mentally tortured for decades?

The UK Guardian reports that gun crime spreads 'like a cancer' across Britain:

Handgun crime has soared past levels last seen before the Dunblane massacre of 1996 and the ban on ownership of handguns introduced the year after Thomas Hamilton, an amateur shooting enthusiast, shot dead 16 schoolchildren, their teacher and himself in the Perthshire town.

Andrew Sullivan points out that Babs endorses Davis, but can't even spell his name correctly.

Iraq's soccer players have a different motivation these days:

"Before the war, if we lost a game, it was very difficult," midfielder Ali Waheb Setet said. "We knew what would happen - we would be sent directly to jail after a very bad game."

The players no longer fear physical punishment. Instead, they have new motivation for their first Asia Cup since Saddam was overthrown, hoping to bring some cheer to weary citizens at home.

On the lighter side, some French people are headed to Eat Onions:

Tired of being sniggered at, people from French villages whose names sound like "Filthy Swine" and "My Arse" plan a weekend get-together in a tiny hamlet whose name means "Eat Onions" in old French. The idea, local newspapers say, is for the villagers to form a united front against constant teasing and forge a new pride in their colorful toponyms.

Only villages "with suggestive names that evoke a smile, a laugh, or have a singsong folkloric name" can take part, say organizers, who plan a gourmet market to show off local fare and say they do not want the event spoiled by vulgarity. Among the 15 or so villages joining the event in the southwestern village of Mengesebes (Eat Onions in Occitan, an old language from the south of France) are: Saligos (which sounds like Filthy Swine), Montcuq (sounds like My Arse) and Trecon (Very Stupid).

Quirky French place names are nothing new to some English-speaking tourists who several times a year make off with signposts from the southwestern town of Condom.

A "hand analyst" who read Schwarzenegger's palm print at Grauman's Chinese Theatre said that she sees "tremendous leadership ability":

"There is this odd kind of Teddy bear thing mixed with warrior energy," said Beth Davis as she traced her finger into the well of the actor's palm print in the landmark Hollywood theater's courtyard Sunday.

Japan confirms the 8th case of mad cow disease.

Shanghai is sinking at the alarming rate of 1.5 cm a year, with the financial district of Pudong. The subsidence is blamed on over exploitation of underground water and an overabundance of high-rise buildings.

Quick Hits

It seems that the story about the four "French-built advanced anti-aircraft missiles which were built this year" has turned out to be false. France claims it hasn't made the missile in 1993.

Domestic terrorist organization ALF claims responsibility for freeing 10,000 minks after which the minks turned on each other in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy, then continued to attack exotic birds, chickens, and a Labrador retriever. 1,000 of the creatures are still missing.

Speaking of animals, police are trying to remove a 600-pound Siberian tiger and a 6-foot alligator from a Manhattan apartment.

Celebration in Canada: A Canadian bio-hazard team was called out and was able to successfully determine that the cause of the alarm was a coffee spill.

After granting National Geographic access to its people for a promised cover story, Saudi Arabia has banned the sale of the issue. A National Geographic representative indicated that perhaps Saudi Arabia hasn't made quite as much progress in opening up the society as one would hope. In the meantime, Saudi citizens continue to read, watch, and hear only what government censors allow.

Speaking of propaganda mills, Al-Jazeera actually did something sensible and pulled two �inflammatory� cartoons from their websites. Arab journalists are infuriated by foreign censorship.

Speaking of censorship, British broadcasters were warned to be aware of the double meaning of the word "pansy", and to be careful during gardening programs.

Bush pushed faith-based initiatives to aid in solving America's social problems. No, not President Bush - the other Bush - Governor Jeb Bush, while holding his second conference on faith-based initiatives.

A 15-year-old boy captured a rare photograph of a meteor "burning out" over his home town. He emailed the photo to NASA, who made it their Astronomy Picture of the Day. Take look - it's really fantastic.

A high school senior kicked a 62-yard extra point. Next year he's going to college on a soccer scholarship.

Bits 'n Pieces

Excellent article detailing the hypocrisy of New York City's homeless advocates, as the city finally wins approval from the courts to throw violent/disruptive vagrants out of a shelter.

Surprise! British lawmakers are out of touch with their constituency as a poll shows that 82% of British homeowners would "do a Tony Martin" and defend their home.

Evidently there is a real furor going on in Denmark after a professor called on the government to encourage smart people to reproduce and discourage stupid people from doing so. He is concerned because the population is - as a whole - growing stupider. This is not a new idea. Francis Galton coined the phrase "eugenics" way back in 1883, and the idea has a long history here in America, with both supporters and critics.

A new study has linked asthma to antibiotics given to a baby in the first six months. Another study has shown that giving a baby cereal either before or after the recommended age of four to six months increases the risk of diabetes.

Get this. Chinese people have a reason to celebrate because they no longer need permission to marry. Permission from their employers! Also in the reform is the elimination of permission from their employers to divorce.

News Roundup

Gee, this can't be good, can it?

The Commerce Department reported Monday that consumer spending increased by a strong 0.8 percent last month on top of an even bigger 0.9 percent advance in July as larger paychecks and other incentives from President Bush's third tax cut began to take hold.

Arafat recovers from the flu, but he thought he had been poisoned.

83-year-old Pope John Paul II, however, is "in a bad way".

Something must be going right. Ted Turner is extremely pessimistic when speaking of the future. This gives me great encouragement.

Florida is going to put electronic tracking devices on illegal aliens as they wait for their day in court. One person taking advantage of this variation of the Federal Government's catch-and-release program is Yen Chen, a 47-year-old Pakistani who has been under deportation order since the mid-1980s because he overstayed his visa. Hey Florida - how about actually deporting him?

In another blow to southern heritage, a judge threw out the United Daughters of the Confederacy's lawsuit, effectively saying that Vanderbilt University can change the name of a residence hall primarily paid for by the UDC. It looks like Confederate Memorial Hall will be no more.

Perhaps a group of Texas senior citizens will be more successful in their fight. The city of Balch Springs ordered the seniors to cease and desist praying before meals, playing gospel music, and holding devotionals in the city Senior Citizen Center. Hopefully, I'll be allowed to do what I want to do in a public structure built for me when I'm that age.

I'm a baaaad boy

It seems that my soul is worth �10812 (or $17,947.92) and that a whopping 75% of people have a purer soul than I.

What is your soul worth?

Hat tip to Diversionz

Quick Hits

Scientists think that mice stampede just like humans.

But computer models have remained unverified because escape panic experiments on humans are difficult to perform without introducing real panic.

I knew that those guys down in Gitmo would come in handy one day.

It looks like Frist might get the votes necessary to pass school vouchers in D.C. in spite of the typical Democrat opposition. Please note that a Republican congress passed this initiative before, but Clinton vetoed it.

It's being reported that Saddam's home movies, complete with horrifying footage of torture, are selling like hotcakes on the streets of Baghdad. People want to see for themselves what happened to friends and relatives that were disappeared, and it's proving to be an "unexpected boon for the coalition, reminding Iraqis of the brutality of the old regime".

Hillary's getting all bent out of shape. It seems that the Chinese publisher of her book has carefully edited out any hint of criticizism of China or the Chinese government.

Britain's in an uproar over rumors of a Eurotax, levied by the EU for the purpose of running the EU. I would be too.

Oh, and here's yet another eye-witness account that gives lie to the negative doom-saying of the press corps in Iraq.

Weird News and Other Oddities

So this is where Forrest Gump came from! A Buddhist monk in Japan has completed a seven-year, 24,800 mile run, a tradition that dates back to the eighth century and is believed to be a path to enlightenment. Those that don't make it are to kill themselves by disembowelment or hanging. I think I'd keep running.

Ben Affleck is trying to get a gun permit down in Georgia. Good for you, Ben!

A parasite that cats can pass to humans "can make women behave like 'sex kittens' and men like 'alley cats' " according to the rather shady publication, the London Daily Mirror. Evidently, the women spend more on clothes and are more confident, easy-going, and warmhearted. Men, on the other hand, become anti-social, suspicious and jealous, more aggressive, scruffier and less attractive to women.

Tea from a flower known as Angels' Trumpets is becoming popular in Germany because of its hallucinogenic properties. An 18-year-old student drank some, went into the garden, and cut off his penis and tongue with a pair of garden shears.

Angels' Trumpets, known for their fragrant and trumpet shaped flowers, have increasingly become popular as an alternative drug in Germany.

Finally, an explanation for the anti-Americanism and other displays of nonsensical German behavior.

Goodbye, Gordon

71-year-old Gordon Jump died yesterday. Gordon was best known for playing the confused but kind-hearted station manager on 'WKRP in Cincinatti' and, later, the lonely Maytag repairman.

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Go with God, Gordon, and rest in peace.

Indeed, I would be a grunt

I've been avoiding taking these Quizilla tests, but how can anyone resist this one?

 

Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about! I'm am pleased to be ranked (even by a silly quiz) with Juan "Johnny" Rico in an book that I read 20+ times while growing up.

Hat tip to Donald Sensing, who very unsurprisingly would have been in Job.

P2P Group to Pay 12 y.o. Settlement

P2P United has offered to pay the $2,000 that the RIAA strong-armed out of a 12 year-old girl:

"We do not condone copyright infringement, but someone has to draw the line to call attention to a system that permits multinational corporations with phenomenal financial and political resources to strong-arm 12-year-olds and their families in public housing the way this sorry episode dramatizes," said Adam Eisgrau, the executive director of P2P United.

I need a bike ...

not because I want to be a biker, just so I can have one of these.

You just can't make this stuff up

An 11-year-old Greek boy must stand trial on 13 October for falling off of his bicycle during a bike race. In doing so he evidently violated eight articles of the penal code and committed one traffic violation.

The island's prosecutor said the boy fell because he was "not driving carefully and with constant rapt attention" and ordered him to appear in juvenile court.

This from a country whose drivers are notoriously bad. According to Greek Landscapes, even the most benign traffic maneuver is fraught with danger:

Another dangerous maneuver in Greece is the dreaded left turn on any road. Chances are good that whoever follows behind you at double your speed is busy lighting a cigarette or fiddling with his stereo all while he is calculating the physics of passing you on the left without hitting the oncoming traffic and analyzing his trajectory to allow his wheels to avoid the two pot holes on the street. Naturally the last thing he has noticed is your left blinker that has been flashing frantically for 500 meters, or your brake lights that you have been pumping frantically hoping that the driver behind you will notice and finally slow down. After driving in Greece for a long time I have come to the conclusion that turn signals fail in this way one time too often, so in addition to turning them on early, I extend my entire arm out the window pointing to the left for at least 200 meters. That seems to take care of the driver directly behind, but it has no effect on the ones behind him, but, hey, what's life without a little stress.

Wanna get pregnant?

A new study has found that teetotal women take longer to get pregnant:

Women who don't drink alcohol take longer to become pregnant, according to a new study by Danish scientists. And researchers say women who drink wine are more likely to get pregnant than beer or spirit drinkers.

Researcher Mette Juhl and a team from the Danish Epidemiology and Science Centre in Copenhagen studied the drinking and life-style habits of over 30,000 women from across the country to find out how long women spend trying to get pregnant.

Juhl said: "Wine drinkers fell pregnant the quickest." The scientist could not say if it was the wine itself which influenced fertility. But added a quick conception also probably depended on personality traits or the life-style habits of wine drinkers.

Not addressed by the article are the chances of getting pregnant for women who get picked up in singles bars compared to those who only meet guys in Bible-study.

Bubba's Beer Biscuits

Brother Advised by Wolves made these for our Extra-Special Labor Day Celebratory Sunday Dinner and wow were they good!

4 cups biscuit mix (recommended: Bisquick)
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
1 (12-ounce) can of beer
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all ingredients well, adjusting the sugar according to how sweet a biscuit you prefer. Pour into well-greased muffin tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with honey butter.

Live to drink, drink to live

A molecule found in red wine has been shown to extend life - at least in yeast:

Molecules found in red wine, peanuts and other products of the plant world have for the first time been shown to mimic the life-extending effects of calorie restriction, a finding that could help researchers develop drugs that lengthen life and prevent or treat aging-related diseases.

Researchers said on Sunday that one of the molecules, a compound known as resveratrol, was shown in a study to extend the life span of yeast cells by up to 80 percent. Resveratrol exists naturally in grapes and red wine.

David Sinclair, an assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study, said he and his fellow researchers hope the molecules will prove to prolong life not just in yeast but in multi-cellular organisms like worms, fruit flies and, perhaps, humans.

Please note that grapes grown in the harsher climes of Spain, Chile, Argentina and Australia contain more resveratrol than those produced where grapes are not highly stressed or dehydrated. Yet another blow to the French wine industry.

Quick Hits

A family sailing off the coast of Australia watched in horror as a 30ft humpback whale leapt from the ocean and crashed on top of them.

The Euro fell sharply after news that the French economy officially in trouble, and Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands all in recession.

Iraqis condemn the attack on the UN as the killing of 'peaceful people' that are there to help

"Presidential hopeful Al Sharpton" (now there's a laugh) is being sued by a travel agency who claims that he and his henchmen civil rights group owe more than $193,000 in airfare and hotel charges, and claims he provided fraudulent credit card information.

The US sends a message to the French by sending its top fighter planes to a Moscow air show, after boycotting the one in France.

The fear of terrorism is resulting in increasing support for the death penalty in Australia (the last execution was more than 30 years ago).

Porn star and gubernatorial candidate is offering a date (sans sex) for anyone who contributes $5,000 to her election campaign fund.

What d'ya know - vouchers work:

Private-school vouchers are good for Florida's public-school system, according to a study to be released today by the Manhattan Institute.

The nonprofit conservative think tank found that students in low-performing schools threatened with vouchers improved much more than their peers in other schools on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and the Stanford-9 math test.

In a giant win for privacy advocates and opponents of Big Brother technology, Tampa police are scrapping a facial-recognition system that was supposed to search crowds for wanted criminals. After two years of use, it has provided no positive identifications and no arrests. Dropping a failed program, eh? Must not be any Democrats in charge.

Some people step up, some don't

What this picture portrays is 70-year-old Dr. Richter in the background, who was caught in a traffic-jam during the blackout and got out to direct traffic. He teamed up with a woman and a teenager to work the intersection and get people moving.

In the foreground you see an NYPD traffic-enforcement officer giving tickets. He did not try to help. In the middle of a blackout he kept giving out tickets and then drove off! And Dr. Richter even had to direct him through the intersection.

About a half-hour into Thursday's power outage, Dr. Robert Richter and two other New Yorkers took it upon themselves to ease the traffic jam at West 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

Then, 15 minutes later, an NYPD traffic-enforcement car rolled up, but instead of directing traffic, the agent tagged a pair of cars on West 79th Street, Richter said.

"When I saw the flashing lights and the cars pull up, I said, 'Oh, relief is here,' " Richter told The Post. "Then they got out of the car and started writing tickets.

"After they finished writing tickets, they drove away - I couldn't believe this. I was just amazed."

At least 10 onlookers implored the agent not to write citations on the cars, a witness said.

But the stone-faced summons man said nothing, wrote the tickets and drove off.

Richter wound up directing the traffic-enforcement car through the intersection.

Free Music

And the RIAA won't care 'cause it's from my Swelter friend.

The (Man) Show Must Go On!

Jimmy and Adam did something unusual - the left a highly-successful show that they created, even though ratings were near their all-time high. But rest assured, the show will go on - and even though there will inevitably be changes:

The hosts are new, the set has been tweaked, but die-hard fans can rest assured that "Man Show" retains many of its signature elements, including the well-endowed, bikini-clad girls jumping on trampolines and a beer-swilling studio audience.

Yippee!

This will never work

A British company has developed a "smart" fitting room designed to scan your body and give you advice on what not to wear.

Installed in a changing room, an array of about six cameras would feed data to a computer running software that matches particular styles to individual body shapes.

The inventors say it could provide advice like "your bum looks too big in this" - or words to that effect.

On the one hand, it could save husbands everywhere from marital strife when they say things like, "No, the pants don't make your butt look too big - I think it's all those Debbie Snack Cakes that does it."

On the other hand, I just don't think a woman is going to take advice from a machine, particularly as taste changes from sub-culture to sub-culture. Can you imagine a high-society matron getting the same advice as a Brittney-wanna-be? And I'm pretty sure that the first time a store's machine tells a woman that something is too tight, it'll be the last time she goes to that store.

New Counter

I've added a new counter at the top of the bar at the right: Countdown to the California Election.

She Gets an A+

Deb over at Sugarfused has raised the bar for all of us by doing a bang-up job of hosting the Tailgate Party. One of these days I'll have to remember to participate, but in the meantime, head over and check out Deb's work!

Now this is a law suit . . .

that anyone would get behind. Man goes in for bladder surgery, doctors turn him into a Ken doll. Bummer

Quick Hits

Up for Anything has an excellent post concerning the 2004 election appropriately titled Dangerous Days For Dems in the Capitol.

Say Uncle has been having fun with Photoshop - which was probably necessary to relax before composing his post about creeping regulations and government interference . . . of people with pets.

In other news, KGB general becomes US citizen.

Loony Clooney connects the dots and says that the US attacked Iraq because Bill messed around with Monica (last item).

Speaking of loonies, Al Sharpton claims the media doesn't take him seriously because newsrooms are dominated by white men. I got news, Al - the media wouldn't take you seriously if it was dominated by purple martins.

And yet another reason to lose weight - overweight drivers are more than twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured in road accidents than thinner people.

Thieves steal cool half-million . . . from a car

Sometimes it isn't the criminal that's stupid - it's the victim.

Thieves stole a briefcase . . . containing $545,000 . . . from a car . . . left in a parking lot . . . at 2:30 in the morning . . . outside of a strip club.

What is amazing here is that the briefcase was found in a dumpster behind the club, contents intact.

Weekend Roundup

Bjorn, Again... has a fine post about a PETA activist that changed her name to GoVeg.com.

Donald Sensing tells us that Tony Martin's problems are far from over, and Kevin points out that New York City is headed in the same direction as the U.K. as they continue to disarm even the rich and famous.

John at Balloon Juice tells us about growing support for Republicans among Hispanics.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has The top 10 future hiding places for Texas Democrats. Heh -- this is funny.

It was Serenity's birthday yesterday. It is Daily Rant Jane's birthday today. Stop by so they at least get some more traffic for a present.

Venomous Kate is guest blogging over at Dean's World.

Finally, no where but Tennessee will there be music festival that focuses on fainting goats.

Welcome to new R.T.B.ers

Buglyblog joins the Rocky Top Brigade, bringing a welcome but very strange sense of humor. But hey, could you have gone through life without knowing about Chewbacca's steriod use?

Democratic Veteran is just that - and if you can keep reading in spite of the poisonous rhetoric and stereotypical name-calling, you find that he makes some very good points. On the other hand, anyone who enjoys Barry (no - not that Barry, this Barry) will enjoy DV.

Dreams of Flying Fish is the online journal of Arlene in Knoxville who (she quips) always wanted to be a cartoon character.

Free Speech News gathers news articles and opinion columns from a, shall we say, particular point of view. I'm certain RTB originator SK Bubba will be a regular reader.

HATamaran is a rather hairy blog (no really - read it and see) and obviously a friend of one of the Barrys.

Mr. Lawson has a business blog for his computer service and links to really cool stuff like this.

Opinari.net seems like a guy who has his head screwed on right, and besides - he points out cool (and really useful) gadgets like this.

Sick of Bush is by someone who is (predictably enough) desirous of "regime change" and posts accordingly. I would visit more if he allowed comments.

Team Rock is dedicated to the east Tennessee music scene. Nice.

Finally, and far from least, Up for Anything joins the RTB. And with posts like this and this (and many others) he is sure to become a must-read for a whole lot of people real fast.

Now that I've finally done my duty, hopefully SKB won't bust me down to private.

Don't Panic - it's only Mars

The Red Planet is coming soon to a sky near you. On 27 August Mars will be closer than ever before in recorded history, a mere 34.5 million miles:

Mars will attain a magnitude of -2.9, far outshining everything else in the night sky. Finding it will be easy. Just glance up a couple of hours after sunset on a clear evening and let the dazzling, non-twinkling "star" low in the southeast grab your attention.

Never again in your lifetime will Mars be so spectacular.

Why it takes so long to make up the bed

So...

Either my last post was too subtle for people to understand, or too long, or perhaps both. I figured I would get at least one comment or link, but disappointment is the undercurrent to life.

On the brighter side of things, Michael Totten has finally gotten off of Slogspot and has a brand-new domain and a Movable Type site. Update your bookmarks and blogrolls to his new home at michaeltotten.com.

Daily Rant Jane points out an absolutely hilarious account of what really happened to the WMD - courtesy of Mr. Helpful.

Tennesseans absolutely must read this post on the Tennessee income tax over at HobbsOnline.

InstaPundit has something beyond the knee-jerk "oh-no" reaction to the Pentagon's proposed futures market for predicting terrorist attacks. (Yes, I know the idea has been scrapped, but the analysis is still good.)

Donald Sensing has an incredible post about an upcoming book entitled Challenging the Quran. A must read - trust me.

Kim du Toit is arranging a new, improved National Ammo Day (was this the Ammo Buycott?) and is requesting aid. Take a gander (don't be afraid, he's not asking for money).

Intel Dump has an excellent analysis of the government's disturbing propensity to utilize the threat of "enemy combatant".

Bjorn Staerk has yet another fine article on the truth behind Jessica Lynch, and the differences of how she is perceived in America vs. Norway.

On the lighter side, Little Tiny Lies has a new resistance anthem for Iraq and a related eBay post.

And in my typical, right-on-time manner, I am honor-and-duty-bound to inform you that the clear-thinking Say Uncle hosted the latest Volunteer Tailgate Party (hey - it only happened last week and I was a little busy, what with the power outages and all).

Finally, Qoo Qoo Gajoob has got to be seen to be believed.

Geography Quiz

I discovered Hootinan today, a rather good blog that I have already added to my blogroll. Among his posts is a link to an online geography quiz. Take a look - damned impressive and quite fun.

Texan Wins in France!

It's official: Lance Armstrong has won his fifth consective Tour de France.

Already speculation is growing as to whether he can come back to win a sixth time, a feat not previously accomplished by anyone.

Big Brother gets Bigger

The Brits are testing new surveillance software that goes far beyond existing face-recognition technology. It watches what you do - how you stand, what you look at, where you walk, what you carry, etc. - and tries to determine whether or not your behavior is "abnormal":

A CCTV system that can automatically spot abnormal behavior will soon be operating at two London Underground stations. The revolutionary system is being piloted this week at Liverpool Street and Mile End.

It overcomes the problem of having too many cameras for human eyes to keep track of. Special software watches out for anything unusual and alerts staff when something suspicious is happening.

Security bosses say it could help protect the public by spotting suicide attempts, overcrowding, suspect packages and trespassers.

The Brits plan on increasing the number of all-seeing-eyes in subways and on trains 50% over the next few years, from 6,000 to 9,000.

What happened to allowing people to keep an eye on suspicious activity? And I don't mean cops - I mean everyone just looking up and noticing what the dickens is going on around them.

Quickies

Sheila is guest blogging over at Dean's World, and takes the Saudi's to task for some comments made about the US releasing photos of the deceased duo's corpses. An excerpt wouldn't do it justice - go read her rather excellent rant.

Michael J. Totten warns Democrats in a post entitled Suicide Watch.

And it looks like Bjorn, Again... just couldn't quit blogging cold turkey. Only a week goes by after announcing that he's hanging it up, he's back to posting. Welcome back, Bjorn!

No Wear and Tear

Now available for the true audiophile, a laser turntable. No needle, so no wear and tear:

The LT reads only what the cutter put on the record. Cantilever resonance, moving coils and magnets, inertia, and mass, and tone arm resonance produce their own sound. The LT has no coloration added and reproduction is the closest possible to the master tape. Response is 10 Hz to beyond 40kHz. No needle velocity "rasp" or needle scrape sounds.

Superb fidelity reproduces hidden subtleties in the recording that other reproducers cannot read. This is because the laser beam is about ONE QUARTER the size of the smallest elliptical styli and is able to reach into minute sections of the groove wall that was made by a chisel shaped cutting stylus. A Shibata type needle is better at getting into small corners but causes damage to the record each time it is played. The laser beam has no problem reading everything on the groove with no physical contact.

This fine piece of audio technology can be yours today. Models starting at $10,500.

Looking for Jimmy

Police are digging up somebody's yard, looking for Jimmy Hoffa:

Authorities said the informant, an inmate named Richard Powell who is imprisoned for killing his landlady in 1982, led a team to the spot. He lived in the home in the 1970s.

Bay County Undersheriff Joel Luethjohann said Powell told investigators in March that he buried the body of a missing Bay City man in the crawl space beneath the same home.

Acting on that information, state police investigators found the body of Robert A. Woods, who had been missing for nearly 30 years.

Powell had long claimed a role in the Hoffa case, but authorities had not taken him seriously.

He told The Bay City Times in a 1984 prison interview that in the 1970s he was involved with gangsters in an auto theft ring and was assigned to drive a motor home containing a body to northern Michigan. He said someone else supposedly came to dispose of the body, which was wrapped in a rug.

Powell changed the story earlier this year, telling officers that Hoffa's body was buried at his former home, where the above-ground pool now sits. Authorities decided to follow up on the lead in part because Powell's claim about Woods' body had proven true.

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime I'll just keep believing the he and Elvis are hanging out in Tijuana.

For those who are interested, here's a nice chronology of events surrounding the Hoffa disappearance.

Counter

I finally got my own version of a counter working. It's at the top of the right-hand bar (just over my bio). Ain't it pretty?

New Sword Site

If you've been disappointed by the lack of posts like this and this on The Edge of England's Sword, it's because he has moved (and upgraded to a Movable Type). Update your bookmarks accordingly.

Thanks to Give War a Chance for pointing the way.

Beautiful

It's things like this post from A Smokey Mountain Journal that make me mad at myself for not going camping even once this year (yet).

It's time

July already and we haven't ordered my Christmas cards yet. But we've got it narrowed down to two: one and two. She picked one, I picked two. Somehow I think we'll end up with with one...

New Blog Showcase

EconoPundit entered the New Weblog Showcase this week. As I already have this fine site blogrolled, I am certainly going to aid the contest efforts by linking to the showcase entry, Noted with Relief.

DW-i also gets a vote for "We're not going to beat Dean", and I find that I have yet another site to add to my "essential reading" list. One day I won't have time to do anything else except read blogs. Now where did I put that copy of Treason?

Designer Pets

Glowing green fish are coming soon to a pet store near you:

Their weird glowing green color makes them look like they've been swimming in a nuclear plant's spent fuel pond.

But the zebra fish on sale in Taipei shops have an even stranger background: They're the latest in genetically modified fish, and their bodies contain DNA from jellyfish, which makes them shimmer in the dark.

Just what I want - a fish that looks like it came out of a bad Chevy Chase movie.

Kuo says the company anticipated fears that the genetically modified animals might spread uncontrollably and harm the environment, so it made sure that they were unable to produce offspring.

Sterile fish - now that's thinking! At the rate kids go through these disposable pets, these people will make millions.

A matter of perspective

MC Escher's "Ascending and Descending" in LEGO form.

Quick Hits

In the Department of Creative Artwork, check out the logo that Google has up in honor of the Fourth of July.

In the Department of the Big Duh, a new study shows that money is not the answer to education woes:

Flexibility and efficiency in education systems matter more than the money spent, where student performances are concerned, according to a new study. A study of 15-year-olds in 42 countries and Hong Kong, released here on Tuesday, found higher average spending per student did not guarantee better results.

From the Department of Lost Causes, the Sons of Confederate Veterans are seeking a Stars and Bars license plate in Tennessee:

Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesman Skip Earle of Franklin acknowledged that the battle flag is an emotional issue but said the icon is part of the group's official logo.

''We're just another benevolent historical organization, and we just want to be treated like everybody else,'' said Earle, Tennessee division commander of the group.

Critics have challenged similar plates in other states, landing the plates in federal and state courts. Ultimately the courts ruled the plates were protected speech under the First Amendment and should be issued.

Even though the legislature approved this plate last year, it will never make it to production. This will give House Speaker Naifeh the necessary ammunition to kill the whole specialty license plate program. Personally, I would never have that particular plate on my car. While I respect the Southern Tradition and will argue the racist aspects all day long, I'll not leave my car unattended with that on display in a town that is over 60% black.

Speaking of controversy, the Philly Daily News says that the Supreme Court proved Santorum right. It's worth a read.

Defeating the Intifada

Some Israelis are hopeful that they are winning:

Some Israeli analysts criticized that conclusion as premature, if not hubristic. Yet for now, the American-brokered talks between the adversaries are being held on what appear to be largely Israeli terms.

Negotiators who three years ago were discussing how to divide Jerusalem are debating how to return partial control of cities that were then under Palestinian authority.

It seems like they are ignoring the fact that 57.3% of Palestinians oppose ending armed intifada.

Israelis say they have forced Palestinians to rethink violence. In March 2002, during a wave of Palestinian attacks, Mr. Sharon declared: "The aim is to increase the number of losses on the other side. Only after they've been battered will we be able to conduct talks."

At the end of that March, Israel launched military offensives to seize Palestinian cities in the West Bank, control of which had been ceded under the Oslo peace process.

Now, the senior military official said, "the Palestinians � at least the ones who make decisions � came to the conclusion that violence will not achieve their political goals."

The only language a terrorist (or a criminal) understands - armed response. Meekness never won the day.

[A senior military official] said the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as new pressure from European and Arab states, had also helped change the Palestinian view on violence.

Yet another vindication that a strong president is what is needed in the world today - not one that lobs a missle at a camel in an otherwise-empty desert before turning his attention back to molesting interns.

Internet Suicide

Japanese youngsters are using the internet to trade information on the best way to commit suicide, and to make suicide pacts with strangers:

Just as others may use the web to plan a vacation or perhaps find a date, some people are turning to it to form death pacts. They trade tips on which rooftops are the best to jump from, which over-the-counter drugs are the most lethal.

Officials say suicide pacts have been made over the internet since at least the late 1990s, and have been reported everywhere from Guam to the Netherlands. But in Japan, where the suicide rate is among the industrialised world's highest, officials are worried about a spate of such deaths.

Not to minimize the problem, please note that strict gun control has no effect on suicide rates.

Blogrolled

Damn, damn, damn, damn! I've got to quit surfing the internet. I just found another essential blog that I have to put on my "must read daily" list: The Gweilo Diaries. Now, where did I put that list?

Women

In a followup article to the earlier "Sweaty armpits give ugly men sex appeal", the UK Telegraph now claims that "Man's sex appeal shows in his cheek".

When the scientists studied the genetic make-up of the men, they found that there was a correlation between an attractive complexion and men with more varied genes that are thought to be healthier. Prof Gosling said: "They are looking at our faces and picking those of us who have a mixed genetic composition.

"Women tend to avoid inbreeding. That means getting genetically varied offspring so that they can resist parasites."

It seems that women are genetically programmed to dislike little bugs, and that purebreds are less attractive than mutts. But most important, women link attractiveness with breeding, while men link sex with just about anything. Complex beings, these women.

Amazing Pup

This puppy was born without functioning front legs, and has learned to walk upright. Click to see the video. Amazing.

Update: They've removed the video link. Must've been too much traffic.

TiVo DVD

Pioneer is introducing new TiVo units with an integrated DVD recorder. Two models are being released, one with an 80 GB hard drive and the other with 120 GB for $1200 and $1800 respectively. Capabilities include:

-- Schedule and record programs while playing a DVD.
-- Play programs from the hard drive while recording from the hard drive onto a DVD.
-- Watch a program from the beginning while the recorder simultaneously finishes the recording.
-- Transfer content at high speeds from the hard drive to a DVD for long-term storage.

The unit also has analog inputs so you can hook up your VCR and burn your old tapes to DVD. This should send blood pressures skyrocketing over at the Hollywood DMA lobby!

Blog Search Engine

Try Feedster.

No Bull

An idea whose time has come:

"We've had it with repurposeable, value added knowledge capital and robust, leveragable mindshare. Enough, already,� says Brian Fugere, partner at Deloitte Consulting. �If Corporate America wants to restore public trust, we need to start speaking and writing more clearly. Less empty rhetoric about openness, honesty and accountability, and more straight talk.�

Enter Bullfighter�, a new program developed by Deloitte Consulting that searches documents for jargon and unnecessarily complex language. Once installed, the Bullfighter toolbar appears in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents, and works much like the spell check feature. The software scans documents for egregious bull, flogs the author for trying to use those words, suggests replacements, and then assigns a Bull Composite score.

Mechanical Poetry

Out of all the extremely insightful content at One Hand Clapping, why is it that I am most taken with a Honda commercial Donald Sensing linked to? Poetry in motion, it took eight men nearly five months to prepare, 606 takes in four days to finally get it right, and there are no CG effects:

1. Go view the commercial (you'll probably do this more than once)
2. Read this article

You'll be glad you did.

One Billion Served

Intel Marks 1 Billionth Computer Chip

Twenty-five years ago this June, the Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, California produced its first microprocessor chip for computers, called the "8086." It now seems a relatively simple chip, containing 29,000 transistors. Today, as the world's leading manufacturer of chips, Intel just produced its one billionth computer chip, its Pentium 4 processor with 55 million transistors, 600 times faster than the old "8086" chip.

So That's What's Wrong!

The reason some people are "night people" is because they have short genes:

The gene, Period 3, forms part of our internal body clock, and comes in two variants, one short and one long. Dr Simon Archer, lead author, said: "We discovered that the shorter variant of the gene is significantly more common in people with an extreme evening preference."

[SNIP] Another co-author, Dr Malcolm von Schantz, added: "There are at least 10 of these clock genes. Whether you are a night owl or a morning person is determined by the sum of the differences between them."

Judas the 13th

Interesting article on Judas' connection to superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th. Also addressed is the possibility that Judas was just misunderstood, underserving of the bad rap.

Which reminds me of this song.

Yep, even water is bad for you

We've heard it before, but new research shows too much water is 'bad for your health' (money quote is at the end):

So how much is safe to sip? "Aim to consume about a quarter of a pint [three-quarters of a cup] of fluid for every hour of exercise," Dr Tunstall Pedoe advised. "More than that is not really advisable, unless it is very hot."

And here I was choking down 8 cups before breakfast.

Blogosphere Ecology

The Truth Laid Bear, known for his Blogosphere Ecosystem, had the brilliant idea of giving new bloggers exposure through a competition he calls New Weblog Showcase, or Microbes on Parade. I guess this makes the Bear sort of the Robert Redford of the Blogosphere.

I encourage everyone to go vote if they have the time. First, it gives great exposure to up-and-coming bloggers. Last week's winner was the most excellent Smallest Minority, which I have had blogrolled for several weeks. Thanks to the Bear, links to The Smallest Minority have grown significantly. Second, it allows you to find some great new blogs. I've made several additions to my blogroll as a result of what I read there.

You vote by linking from your blog to the contestent's entry. My votes this week go to:

The Blog Herald should get a vote on the merit of the idea alone. He blogs news about blogs. This includes blogging appearing in the media, commentary (such as the role of bloggers in the recent NY Times embarresment), announcements by blogging software creators (e.g., Moveable Type), and more. I don't see Greymatter listed as a catagory, but it could just be that they haven't posted any news about it yet. So the Blog Herald gets a vote for its post Europe Goes to the Blogs.

I usually don't have time for diary-type blogs, but Serenity's Journal is a grab-bag of interesting anecdotes and cutting political commentary, making for a fun read. I found her via another favorite, Courtney, before the Parade started and was a regular visitor, so she certainly deserves a vote. She's going through cold-turkey nicotine withdrawals at the moment, giving her posts an extra edge that she should probably try to cultivate. Her entry, 100 proof, is a fine example of her political commentary. (Not only that, she gave me a damn fine plug, but I voted for her on merit - really, I did.)

Judging from the number of times I see The Mudville Gazette referred to as I hunt the blogospere, this is a popular site. A quick peruse and I see why. Check his entry, Sacred Words.

DANEgerus' weblog is a work of art, with biting political commentary. 'Nuff said. Check out Gary Hart fisked.

Taste Tribes

Joshua Ellis over at Mindjack has an incredible piece entitled Taste Tribes:

There's a great line in the film High Fidelity where the main character, Rob (played by John Cusack) makes the observation that he doesn't like people because of who they are � he likes them because of what they like.

At first glance, this position sounds incredibly superficial. But on closer examination, it becomes more reasonable. After all, why do you talk to the stranger in the coffeehouse or in the bar? Unless you're a creepy freak who just bothers random strangers, it's probably because they're wearing a t-shirt sporting the logo of a band you like or reading a book by your favorite author. This spurious connection gives you a reason to talk to them.

Josh later ties his premise to the world of blogging:

When you start using the aforementioned tools to explore the "world of ends" (as a recent essay by bloggers Doc Searls and David Weinberger names it), you will discover a rather intuitive pattern emerging. Bloggers link back to sites that link to them.

Wow, pretty shocking, huh? But the reason why this happens is pretty interesting. It's not out of courtesy, the way it was back in the early days of the Web when we were all terribly elated to be linked to by anybody. We're older now, more cynical, less excitable.

It happens because minds think alike...

Read the whole thing. It's worth it.