January 31st, 2004
Posted by fad at 8:25am
January 30th, 2004
Posted by fad at 4:41pm
Ouch. Not good times.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Friday that Hasbro Inc. of Pawtucket, R.I., is voluntarily recalling about 294,000 Nerf Big Play Footballs because their hard plastic interior frame poses a safety hazard. The top on the ball flips open to reveal an erasable screen that can be used to plan football plays.Dude, you're supposed to catch with your hands, not your face. Actually, I took a real football in the teeth once. It's amazing how quickly you can tire of the taste of blood. Well, when it's your own, that is.
CPSC said there have been nine reports of facial injuries from the balls. Eight of those incidents required stitches or medical attention.
Each has the Nerf name on it, along with a large black "X" and the signature of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.Nothing like your signature being the last thing someone sees before their face gets ripped open.
Posted by fad at 4:29pm
I just heard the first campaign commercial of the season on the way home. Well, campaign for president, that is. Some Democrat in Illinois running for Senate has been running anti-Bush ads for months. Nope, this was the first of all the candidates for prez I've heard.
It was Larouche.
"If you think about all FDR did, you know he can do it."
Posted by fad at 4:04pm
What the hell, a Friday Five.
You have just won one million dollars:
1. Who do you call first?
The BBC so they can sex me up.
2. What is the first thing you buy for yourself?
A woman. A real one this time.
3. What is the first thing you buy for someone else?
A bullet with their name on it.
4. Do you give any away? If yes, to whom?
Hell no!
5. Do you invest any? If so, how?
Of course not. Like all rich people I will make furniture out of it. Ok, I'll invest in technologies that convert the poor into heat. Like napalm.
Posted by fad at 2:50pm
I think we can officially say that Castro is near death.
In a five-hour speech in the Cuban capital, Havana, the communist leader said his country was ready to repel an invasion from the United States.Only 5 hours? He's slipping, definitely can't be healthy. And he intends his passing to be smothered in conspiracy sauce.
"These idiots had better not believe we're wasting our time... This country will never give up. It will never lay down its weapons," he said.By Holy Memory of Che's Motorcycle, this cannot be allowed to happen! And it won't. The coot will be allowed to pop off on his own in comfort.
He accused the Bush administration of plotting with Miami exiles to kill him.
"We knew that Mr Bush had made a commitment with the mafia [Cuban exiles] of the Cuban-American Foundation to kill me. I accuse him of this," he said.You know, I'm in full agreement with Castro for once. I don't care how he dies either.
"This dead man can still talk. This dead man can make plans. This dead man ... is not dead yet.
"With a gun in my hand, I don't care how I die, but I'm confident that if they invade us, I will go down fighting," Mr Castro said to tumultuous applause from the audience,
But many Cubans now fear that Washington, frustrated by the failure of a 40-year embargo to bring down Mr Castro, may be planning an imminent land invasion.Don't you love the excellent reporting and sourcing of that first statement "But many Cubans now fear"? Nicely solid reporting there. They present no evidence for it, but since it is presented as a simple matter of fact, I guess I'll just have to accept it.
Some 130,000 "committees for the defence of the revolution" and other local organisations have been told to step up their vigilance.
Posted by fad at 2:19pm
Aww....young (and not so young) Dean supporters are learning that life just isn't fair even to people who really, really, really, really, really believe in something.
"The system was frustrating at times because of the treatment we got from other campaigns and the media," he said. But, he added, "Even if we don't succeed, ultimately we put a huge stamp on this race and define what it is about."It sure as hell wasn't because Democratic participants just wanted to vote for someone else. Dean can only be stopped by conspiracy.
There was talk of opponents who, some of Dr. Dean's supporters said, used dirty tricks against him. There was anger at the news media, which in the space of three months seemed to them to go from celebrating his candidacy to seeking to destroy it.
By the way, one of the reporters credited on this story is one Jennifer 8. Lee. Yes, that's a number eight as the middle initial. Just found that interesting.
Posted by fad at 1:41pm
Ugh. Someone in to talk to the guy in the office behind me attempted suicide by drowning in cologne or perfume. Sadly they lived and came in anyway. I guess I was overdue for a bad headache.
Posted by fad at 1:26pm
More evidence that Hollywood inspiring kids to violence.
Joshua Cary wasn't sure what the noise was in his family's basement Thursday afternoon in Sullivan, but he wasn't taking any chances.You just know that kid saw the Lord of the Rings movies and couldn't help himself.
The 14-year-old picked up a sword and went to investigate.
"I'm going to give you until the count of three to come out or I'm going to stab you," he yelled, according to his mother, Rebecca Cary.
For all Joshua knew, the threat might produce a stray cat trying to keep warm. Instead, a handcuffed man emerged saying, "I didn't do it."
Posted by fad at 11:20am
Some people just can't resist a good button.
The cells holding 26 death-row inmates sprang open for three minutes after a guard pressed the wrong button, a month after a prisoner was beaten to death during a similar mishap.Oops. Now imagine being this guy.
The guard who opened the doors was in a control room. Another guard was in the unit with the inmates, Tyler said.That'll get the heart racing.
The door button has a cover, but the prison was considering more safeguards, she said.Such as a sign that says, "DON'T PUSH THIS BUTTON - THIS MEANS YOU, SHITDIP".
Posted by fad at 10:46am
This is an interesting plan.
Illinois would be the first state to own a casino if a bid by a Pennsylvania company for the state's last-available gaming license wins at an upcoming auction.At first I read that and thought, "Huh?" But don't worry. They have a scheme here.
The proposal, sources said, would see Penn National Gaming, which owns Hollywood Casino in Aurora, pay upwards of $500 million for the license and sell it back to the state for $1.So let me see if I understand this right. It sounds like the state has to sell the license before it can be used. It can't just say it owns it and go on it's merry way. So it sells it to this company, making it active, then buys it back for a buck (which, just guessing, doesn't sound like market value), finally hiring the company to run it.
The state then would sign a long-term deal with Penn National that would see the company manage the casino, to be located in Rosemont.
It was unclear Thursday if the Penn National proposal is legal.This is Illinois. Legal's got nothing to do with it.
Posted by fad at 10:17am
Oooo..pretty.
Posted by fad at 9:33am
Damn. I read this headline:
"McDonald's to sell adult Happy Meals U.S.-wide"
And thought, "All right! Dildos, porno and Fleshlights with my burger!" But, no. As usual some faceless corporation gets me all hyped about aiding my artificial sex life, only to let me down again.
Tested in some 200 U.S. McDonald's in Indiana, the meal includes an entree-sized salad, a bottled water or medium fountain drink, a fitness guide from celebrity trainer Bob Greene and a pedometer to encourage walking for physical fitness.Damn corporations.
Posted by fad at 9:32am
URLs too easy to remember? Do you miss the days when a lot of sites were like http://students.computers.science.trafton.someloserschool.statesystem.edu/~trekkernottrekkie/mysite/stuffilike/index.html? Huge URL to the rescue!
Posted by fad at 9:28am
Just as they planned it.
Teacher Linda Krienke says fire broke out on a desktop in her classroom around 1 a.m. Saturday, causing enough smoke to set off the school's alarm. But when firefighters arrived, they found only glowing embers on the desk.This is why I don't bother with smoke detectors. I just hang many bags of water from my ceiling by easily burnable string. To make it look better, I put a fish in each bag.
The heat had caused a fish bowl on the desk to explode, and the water put out the fire, Krienke said.
One of the firefighters spotted the fish, named Dory, still alive on the floor and hollered for a glass of water.
Posted by fad at 9:03am
Ah, the old "people are stupid" excuse for an argument. It's a favorite of our betters of all stripes. I know plenty of people who firmly believe it. The phrase actually has an unspoken ending of "unlike me". More often than not it is also "unlike us" because generally one does not say such a thing unless one thinks one's audience will be in agreement with you and not annoyed by overuse of the word "one". The assumed difference is not that people aren't as stupid as you think, just in how to deal with this problem. All smart people, easily identifiable by their tastes since smartness is defined by all those externals (don't watch Reality TV, read proper smarty-man books, etc.), know that they are the pure corn in an ocean of shit.
This is also just another way of saying, "The people must be led for The People™'s sake." It's the authoritarian excuse as old as Plato*. One thing I've always wondered about the "people are stupid" crowd is, if this is so, then why do you think a collection of them telling us what to do is such a great idea? But, of course, the answer is already found in the unspoken part I mentioned above. The collection of people telling us what to do will be made up of those shining few who are not stupid. How will these people be identified? Easy! They agree with you.
It really is that simple. Follow the logic. I am smart. Therefore the things I think are more correct and smart since as a smart person I can only think smart things. Therefore, since the things I think are smart, other smart people cannot help but agree with them since they are so well thought out and smart. Since thinking these things is a sign of smartudinous, anyone disagreeing cannot be smart and must be lumped in with the stupid. Find-n-Replace "smart" with "moral" and you have the same arguments for other authoritarian schemes.
[Click here to read the rest of my ramble. If you dare.]
Posted by fad at 8:44am
For the inner /.er in some of you, I present this image. That was the ad on the page for the story in the previous post. Note the paragraph on the lower left.
Posted by fad at 7:37am
I say it just about any time it comes up, but I will not trust any election that uses electronic, networked voting for a significant number of votes.
Electronic voting machines made by Diebold Inc. that are widely used in several states have such poor computer security and physical security that an election could be disrupted or even stolen by corrupt insiders or determined outsiders, according to a new report presented today to Maryland state legislators.In response, the company combined a bunch of words together to sound nice and mean nothing.
Mr. Urosevich added: "With that said, in our continued spirit of innovation and industry leadership, there will always be room for improvement and refinement. This is especially true in assuring the utmost security in elections."But they tend not to fix what they say has been fixed.
The latest study found that some issues discovered last July in the Johns Hopkins study had not, in fact, been corrected, and that other issues that had not been discovered in other studies were equally troubling. The report can be found at www.raba.com.Hey, they can't help it if the press release team is more efficient than the bug and exploit fixing team. Let's see some of the specific problems.
In the security exercise, members of the attack team said they were surprised to find that the touch-screen machines used by voters all used the same physical key to the two locks that protect their innards from tampering. With hand-held computers and a little sleight of hand, they found, the touch screens could be reprogrammed to make a vote for one candidate count for an opponent, or results could be fouled so that a precinct's tally could not be used.Lack of physical security: check.
And the server computers do not have the latest protection against the security holes in the Microsoft operating systems, and they are vulnerable to hacker attacks that would allow an outsider to change software, the group found.Insecurely set up OS: check.
The authors of the report also said smart cards that are shipped with the system for voters and supervisors to use during elections have standard passwords that are easily guessed. That problem was cited in the original Johns Hopkins report, and it could allow anyone with a hand-held card reader and small computer to get the access of an election official. The company said that it has provided the capability for election officials change those passwords and increase security, though it still ships the products with the easily broken password.No attempt to idiot proof: check. This sounds like all those "sa/no password" Microsoft SQL boxes that can still be found around. With something this important being given to non-expert hands, you cannot assume they will be smart enough to change all the passwords. Nor can you expect them to change the password to something other than a petname, significant other name, favorite movie or some nonsense like that.
Personally, I think the focus on the reform on election mechanics has been all wrong. They have focused on making it easier, not more accurate or secure.
Posted by fad at 7:36am
It's not like its his money on the line.
The Congressional Budget Office said in November and again this week that the cost was about $400 billion for the 10-year period 2004 to 2013, the amount originally proposed by Mr. Bush. But White House officials said Thursday that the president's budget would put the cost at $530 billion to $540 billion.But as with all these programs estimated over time, it's complete fantasy. You can get a guess, but no one knows how much a tax cut or increase will affect tax intake. No one knows precisely how much a program will cost in over a decade.
A White House official said the new estimate reflected "the Medicare actuaries' best estimate of the future cost." The actuaries and White House budget officials often differ with Congressional budget experts, he said.You can guess and use those actuary thingies, but with huge programs, the margin of error still contains millions of dollars.
"Health costs are very volatile," the official said. "It's difficult to predict the behavior of 40 million people in a market that does not now exist."
Posted by fad at 7:10am
January 29th, 2004
Around 12:30 p.m., the suspect tried robbing Clark's, a holistic Bellevue pharmacy that sells antibiotics, fish oil, vitamins, minerals and herbs, said Mark Clark, owner and pharmacist.Hippies ruin everything.
Standing behind the pharmacy's counter with a small gun and two paper bags, the man demanded that employees give him narcotics, Clark said.
One employee, he said, told the suspect, "We don't carry any narcotics."
Posted by fad at 5:36pm
Man says what is expected of him. Newspapermen there to hear it.
The United States military is “sure” it will catch Osama bin Laden this year, a spokesman said today.He then said, "OH MY GOD! HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!...Made ya look."
Thursday, but he declined to comment on where exactly the al-Qaida leader may be hiding.
Bin Laden, chief suspect in the massacres in the US on September 11, 2001,I hope we can crack that case someday so that we can finally be sure the only man who repeatedly claimed responsibility for his organization which has proudly taken full credit for the attacks over and over and over again is actually the one that did it. This uncertainty of which we are actually very certain is maddening.
Posted by fad at 3:20pm
Hey! I thought the Bush administration was only putting arsenic back into the water supply, not chickens.
Young chickens may contain more than three times as much arsenic as other types of poultry and meat, researchers report.Dastardly, I tells ya. The darkness knows no end.
These levels are higher than previously believed and may need to be taken into account when determining what levels of overall arsenic exposure are safe, according to a report in the January issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Posted by fad at 3:12pm
Has anyone else had or heard of someone purporting to be Evan Gahr posting nonsensical screeds involving Richard Cohen among others in the comments of random posts?
Posted by fad at 12:58pm
There's a new craze sweeping the nation! By which I mean it's happened twice in the Chicago area. False terror tips to settle family arguments.
According to the charges, 40-year-old Awni Abughoush told the FBI last week that his sister drove a lunch truck and planned to poison its food or rig the truck with explosives.Hey, at least it's safer than Taboo. And it doesn't have dippy democratically elected queens like Naboo.
[...]
Officials said he may also have been upset with his sister, Asmahan Abughoush, because he recently was detained at the Philadelphia airport by immigration officials questioning him about her whereabouts. She had overstayed her visa and is being deported, FBI officials said.
Posted by fad at 12:44pm
The wonderful predictability of politicians.
Front-runner John Kerry drew cheers from an overflow crowd at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park when he said, "This is the Show-Me State, and we're here to show George Bush the door."Emphasis added to show you. I've lived in the St. Louis area for about 2.5 years. I admit I have no roots nor civic or regional pride for the place. Nor do I plan to ever. However, in this time the only time I ever hear anyone use "Show-me", besides the Hooters competitor called "Showmes", is when some out of state politician panders into town. I'm always surprised that they continue to do it and that people actually sop it up.
[...]
"We have folks on the ground in every congressional district in Missouri," Clark said. "We have 2,200 volunteers signed up in the Show-Me state, and we have the leadership in place to coordinate the explosion of volunteer activity."
Posted by fad at 12:03pm
Since I don't intend my remains to ever be found, I won't be able to have tombstone fun like this guy.
The former construction worker in his 60s says he'll use some of the nearly $76,000 he won in the lottery to buy a hedonistic headstone.Unfortunately the design ran out of room for the "No Fat Chicks" and "Jackhammers Do It Pneumatically" slogans.
Lee said his tombstone will read, "Been there, done that" and show "a champagne glass, a royal flush, a slot machine, a nude woman facing backward and a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse."
Posted by fad at 10:51am
And I thought only video games caused violence.
Officers were called to the home Sunday after two men threatened others with guns because they were losing the game, in which one teammate gives clues about certain subject matter, but using certain words is taboo.I know I always bring a gun when I play board games. Keeps 'em honest.
Posted by fad at 10:49am
Starting with Nick Nolte, then Glenn Cambell, Michael Jackson and now James Brown we are truly living in a golden age of celebrity mugshots.
Posted by fad at 10:15am
In a former incarnation, I was known for my love of clubbing baby seals and stuffing them in a pita for a tasty snack. Thanks to Canada, I can still indulge now and again.
Canada curtailed the hunt, then expanded it in 1996. That triggered renewed protests led by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which distributed grisly videos of seals being slaughtered.Protesters are serious about fighting back this time. They've brought out the big guns.
Canadian officials remained unswayed, saying the hunt's importance had grown because of the North Atlantic cod fishery's collapse. They also say the region's harp seals are far from endangered -- now numbering an estimated 5.2 million.
The Humane Society now has taken out full-page newspaper ads urging Americans to consider canceling trips to Canada and boycotting Canadian products. And at this month's Sundance Film Festival, Paris Hilton posed in an anti-hunt sweatshirt -- ''Club Sandwiches, Not Seals'' -- and signed a protest letter to the Canadian Embassy.That's right. Paris Hilton is on the case. Ok, so she doesn't have what could be called "big guns", but she could paper cut the hell out of you with her hips. Hmmm...doesn't really have hips either. Those protruding pelvic bones could scratch the hell out of your car, though.
Posted by fad at 9:13am
Speaking of "hobbit feets" and the creepily obsessed, dig this guy from the previous story.
One of those who signed on for the tour, jan howard finder ("all lower case, like e.e. cummings," he said), is a longtime Tolkien fan from Albany who has read all four books (the trilogy plus "The Hobbit") "about 30 times, four or five out loud."Geez, I thought all those people outgrew that, "look at me! i'm just like e.e. cummings!" phase by the time they were 19. Guess a few slipped through the cracks.
Posted by fad at 8:24am
A friend of mine referred to those who camped out to see the first screening of "Return of the King" as the "hobbit feets". He envisioned a throng of really quite scarey people all a-costumed including fuzzy hobbit feet. Well the New York Times has a travel article all about putting those "hobbit feets" in the "footsteps of Frodo".
Glenorchy Air, the company that helped fly cast and crew members to and from locations on the South Island, has trademarked a Trilogy Trail set of tours. The One Ring Trail is a day trip by road to locations around Queenstown used in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and includes a walk in Paradise, location of Amon Hen. The Two Ring Trail, a two-to-three-hour flight, visits such locations as the Kawarau River, the River Anduin in the movie, to Skippers Canyon, the backdrop to the Ford of Bruinen, where the Black Riders are swept away by a flood, and to Paradise, at the head of Lake Wakatipu, which was the base for scenes set in Lothlorien. The Three Ring Trail is a full day of flying, covering about a third of the South Island, with landings at movie locations for the Plains of Rohan, at Edoras and at the Pelennor Fields.But you'll need to provide your own really cheezy music and man-weeping.
Posted by fad at 8:19am
I often wonder how many of those who make lazy, nearly to the point of liturgical response, references to 1984 or other famous Orwell quotes have actually read 1984 (outside "one time for a class") or any of his other works? Yes, jonese, I know about Burgess' 1985. Anyway, this comes up because this story will surely have the sloppy clambering for First Post! like losers in an internet forum about "Big Brother" coming to town.
While a researcher at Harvard University, Farwell became interested in a particular kind of brain wave involved in recognition. Called a P300 response (so named because it occurs within 300 milliseconds of observing an object or processing information), it is a brain wave that is produced only when the subject recognizes something familiar.Hmmm...I guess Dennis Kucinich (D - That Place Where They Get Oompa Loompas) was right. They are going to put brain watching gear in space.
Building on the science of this well-known phenomenon, Farwell has identified a specific type of P300 response he calls a "mermer" that can be used to identify an individual by studying his or her involuntary response to relevant information.
Given the debate in law enforcement and judicial circles about polygraphy's reliability, Farwell is hoping to make his brain fingerprinting technology the new lie detector. The company says it has attracted increasing interest from law enforcement agencies and has received more than $1 million in research funding from the CIA.
Posted by fad at 7:58am
I signed up on Match.com last night. I like the efficiency of having lists of women who will have nothing to do with me emailed several times a week.
Posted by fad at 7:46am
I've been using the world "plus" way too much lately. It's annoying.
Posted by fad at 7:39am
While most of the country is loading up on cheap beer and snacking products, Opportunity will be hitting the road.
The Opportunity rover is on track to roll onto Mars as early as Sunday, just days before its twin could resume its own work exploring the Red Planet, NASA said Wednesday.Thankfully it comes with its own tax-funded team of designated drivers.
[...]
Engineers hoped to complete that work in time for a late Sunday roll-off, rover activity lead scientist Rick Welch said.
Posted by fad at 7:36am
Warning: This is pretentious twaddle. Wade through it at your own risk of eye-strain from all the rolling they'll be doing.
Of course the big hoodoo this morning is that Bush wants to increase dramatically NEA funding. Republicans truly are the abused spouse of politics. "They called us fat! It's not true...but...maybe if we lost some weight then they'd love us." Here it's, "They called us mean! It's not true...but...maybe if we spend lots and lots of money it'll prove we're not and then they'll love us."
Administration officials, including White House budget experts, said that Mr. Bush would propose an increase of $15 million to $20 million for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.Now my problems with the NEA are slightly different than most. It's not the extreme examples most right-wingers whine about (i.e. "pornography", or "chocolate smearing"). It's not even the money being spent. Well, not totally. Much of the money is spent on small things that simply would never happen without it (though I can't remember now if for sure, but I'm pretty sure it paid for a very small show several years ago in New York that involved women discussing what it meant to be a woman by talking to an orange on stage. The orange was very symbolic of....something).
No, my reason is pretty stupid and most will think I'm being dumb. I just have a big problem with the State, especially via bureaucracy, determine what art is worthy. I have no problem with the State purchasing or commissioning art for monuments, decoration or similar things. This is probably one of the most consistent beliefs of my life. I thought this same way when I was a li'l socialist as I do now. My problem is simply the idea that the State sits there and judges what should be art, via its funding, and what should not.
One aspect of this is that, as with just about anything else, one of the surest ways to take meaning out of anything (marriage, art, nachos) is to let the State run it. Some would argue that doing it this way prevents the crassness of commercialism from corrupting art. Well, I think most of you reading this know that "crassness of commercialism" arguments don't really fly with me. I think that this actually disconnects art from the culture it is trying to reflect and comment on. It's insulating. While not in every case, of course, it lessens the art when it doesn't actually have to deal directly with the culture.
This is not to say that I think that just because Thomas Kinkade sells a shitload of stuff that means he must be a great artist (Though the fact that so many people do seem to enjoy it shouldn't be snobbishly tossed off completely. To each their own no matter how crappy.). Art that has earned its audience, no matter how small, to me is always more meaningful even should I not understand or like it.
I understand the practicableness of these grants in giving a helping hand to potentially worthy projects, but I cannot get over my distaste for the State being the one to determine this worth.
Posted by fad at 7:21am
For a while I was planning to take the day off from this. Well, actually, it was going to be a performance piece called Vodkaesque Blogging in which I post in the morning that I'm starting late because of last night's crisis and will be back later. Then in the evening a second post that there won't be any other postings because of that night's crisis. Just kidding Mr. Green.
Posted by fad at 6:47am
Crazy Russian + Icy Roads = FUN!
Posted by fad at 6:31am
January 28th, 2004
The archives of the Bill Clinton presidential library will contain 39,999,998 e-mails by the former president's staff and two by the man himself.Less is better, I think. I'd hate to see a bunch of, "That Elian raid U did was kewl, LOL! ;)". Plus, "Leaves of Grass" via email just isn't as special.
[...]
One of them may not actually qualify for electronic communication because it was a test to see if the commander in chief knew how to push the button on an e-mail.
Posted by fad at 5:39pm
John Kerry may never have heard of Botox, and, really, what a lame line. He may want to deny he had any work done, he may not have had any work done, but who the hell is going to buy the idea that he's never heard of it? Really, the worst lies are the ones that go too far. It's like a guy denying he had an affair because his dick fell off. Anyway, there is at least one politician not afraid to admit it.
Berlusconi acknowledged Wednesday having cosmetic surgery, but quickly added it was ``only under the eyes.''Well, sort of admit it. Isn't saying you just had the eyes done cliched code for "I got the works, babe"?
Posted by fad at 2:36pm
Hey, I like the commercials during the Super Bowl as much as the next person. I also enjoy looking at images, moving or otherwise, of scantily clad women since when I look at them in real life I tend to get restraining orders or things thrown at me. This is too far.
There were pop stars, cameras and lights, but the excitement wasn't for a movie premiere, it was the world debut of a Pepsi commercial — starring Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles and Pink.They held a premiere for a frickin' commercial? Well, at least it had redeeming value.
The trio were at the National Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square Monday for the first screening of the soft drink manufacturer's "New Gladiator" ad, in which they play gladiators and Enrique Iglesias plays an evil Roman emperor.
"Filming the ad was awesome, it made me feel empowered and I got to work with these two fantastic gladiator women," she [Britney Spears] added.Don't you just love bullshit terms like "empowered"? I never thought getting skanked up in fake gladiator gear would be empowering, but if certain ladies want to give it a try, I won't get in the way.
The three have reworked the old Queen hit "We Will Rock You" for the ad, and band members Brian May and Roger Taylor also were at the event.Mute button it is, then.
Posted by fad at 1:29pm
Nowadays they'd just blame a pharmacu...pharmaceu...a drug company.
The Florida Parole Commission voted 2-1 on Wednesday to allow Ronny Zamora to be released June 7 of this year instead of 2005 as earlier scheduled.The 70s had all the great defenses. This one, the "Twinkie Defense" (which will be hard to top), the "Neighbors Dogs Told Me To" line. Truly a golden decade.
Zamora's trial for the 1977 murder of 83-year-old Elinor Haggart at her Miami Beach home was one of the most sensational in Florida history and the first to be televised after cameras were allowed into the courtrooms. His attorney, Ellis Rubin, had used a "TV defense," arguing that watching violent television had prompted Zamora to kill.
Posted by fad at 12:32pm
Now this is a nice scam.
Brian Walsh, spokesman for the House Administration Committee, said the resale is ''not breaking the letter of the law'' but has caused a lot of concern. It's ''just price-gouging people,'' he said.Of course they will probably waste time and money to pass a law over this.
People can purchase from their lawmaker a 3-by-5-foot flag that has been flown over the U.S. Capitol for less than $20. The same flag costs $79.99, plus $13.50 shipping and handling, when purchased from Capitol Flags
Posted by fad at 11:32am
You mean there could be money in this blogging thing?
Mimi Smartypants, a thirty-something diarist with a cult following, has been greeted as the new Bridget Jones. Like Helen Fielding's fictional Bridget, she has a talent for observing human foibles and a witty line in self-deprecation. But unlike Bridget, Mimi is not a fictional character -- just a pseudonym. She is married, has an adopted baby and her diaries -- read by up to 1,500 people a day -- appear on the Internet.$20,000 for a site with 1500 hits a day? Nice. That works out to a little more than $13 a hit. Society owes me twenty-six bucks.
Mimi is just one of hundreds of thousands of people who write daily online diaries known as "blogs" (short for web log). Mimi's -- with its engaging blend of confessional and comedy -- is one of the most popular, and recently caught the attention of the publishing house HarperCollins, who offered her $20,000 to bring out The World According To Mimi Smartypants as a book.
Posted by fad at 11:22am
Note to self: Get into the ethics test writing business.
More than 9,000 state employees in Gov. Blagojevich's administration have been given a new ethics training test that sideswipes Republicans.$24,000 per question? I could cognitate me up some questions for that kind of scratch.
The testing began last week, and all 58,000 workers under the Democratic governor's control will have until May 31 to pass the 10-question exam, which a California firm was paid $240,000 to produce.
One of the scenarios involves a "former House minority leader and head of the state Republican Party ... accused of using his staff to do political work on state time."The Illinois Republican Party really is a piece of work.
While naming no one specifically, the reference describes former House Minority Leader Lee Daniels (R-Elmhurst), who remains a state representative despite being embroiled in a political scandal that involves his alleged use of legislative staffers on House campaigns while heading the House GOP. Daniels, who did not return a message seeking reaction to the reference, has not been charged with criminal wrongdoing.
[...]
Another section, dealing with bribery, alluded to former Gov. George Ryan's corruption scandal. While Ryan himself was not named in the guide, it noted how state employees took bribes in exchange for commercial driver's licenses so they could contribute to the ex-secretary of state's campaign and keep their jobs.
To pass, employees must answer eight of the 10 questions correctly. Rausch was not aware of any employees failing the test so far. She said Blagojevich passed the exam.I really can't imagine how tough that test could be. Of course the accuracy is pretty much a nothing. There's a huge difference in how you answer versus how you actually act.
Posted by fad at 11:16am
I guess this MyDoom thing really did get big.
Infected messages were intercepted in 142 countries and one in 12 e-mails being protected by Britain-based MessageLabs was carrying the worm, the anti-virus vendor reported. In comparison, the widespread SoBig virus that hit last August -- at its peak -- only attacked 1 out of 17 e-mails handled by the firm.None of them got through here at work, and I have yet to see any show up in any of my other emails. I'm not worried about infection since I still read all my mail in PINE in a Linux shell, but usually with these things I get a few angry emails from people who got sent something with my address spoofed as the sender.
Posted by fad at 10:49am
It's all about the NUUUUUUUKKKKKEEESSSS!!!.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, following up a promise to end his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, has shipped some 55,000 pounds of nuclear and missile components to the United States in a bid to break out of diplomatic isolation.I bet this is all a scam to enrich Halliburton. Stealing that poor man's nukes.
[...]
An American transport plane carrying the components arrived Tuesday at McGhee Tyson airport outside Knoxville, Tenn., with the equipment. It included stock to enrich uranium, centrifuge parts and guidance sets for long-range missiles, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
Posted by fad at 9:59am
Shark!. Well, not really. Remember how until September 11th, the late summer of 2001 was the Summer of the Shark?
The number of shark attacks worldwide has dropped 30 percent over the past three years, which is good news for surfers but possibly bad news for sharks.There were actually 9 fewer than the year before. God bless the August media cycle.
[...]
The number of attacks dropped for the third year in a row, with 55 unprovoked attacks reported last year. There were 79 reported attacks in 2000, 68 in 2001 and 63 reported attacks in 2002.
Posted by fad at 9:49am
It's funny how when you neglect to add things to the requirements of a report, you won't see them when the report is run. It's really helpful, too, when your feedback about the problem is, "It's wrong." But what the hey, who needs details?
Posted by fad at 9:11am
One of the most entertaining parts of the college drinking experience was the Drunken Manifesto. Someone in a group, whether at a party or at a bar, had something they really needed everyone to hear. It was usually very passionate, rambling and nonsensical, but fun to watch nonetheless. This doesn't seem to happen anywhere near as often in the post college days, though I understand it happens privately in a couples situation. Having not been anywhere close to that since college, I cannot confirm this. Mostly the closest I've seen these last few years is the drunk who is simply unaware that there is any other conversation going on around him, so he just talks over and through everyone.
My all time favorite Drunken Manifesto happened at the end of one school year. I ran in to a friend, who knew and was known by everyone in school, one evening. He said, "Hey, you want to go to this little party?"
"Nah....not really."
"They have a keg and its cheap."
"Ok."
So off we went. As I said, it was the end of the year, so the apartment was completely emptied of any furniture. All that was there were sleeping bags in the bedroom and a boombox in the living room playing some crappy CD. By the time we showed up everyone was too drunk to remember to take our money. Score! Free really bad beer (I think it was Busch Lite, the classic underage beer in Mankato). All the kids were just sitting on the floor in little groups. I didn't know any of them there, and they, as usual, didn't want to know me.
After a while one guy stood up, walked to the middle of the room and declared, "I got..I got something I gotta say. I got something to say!" The room quieted giving all attention to him. He slowly, and unsteadily, lowered his cup to a counter, then gave this classic speech which I will never forget.
"I've been...I..I....fuck!
"You know I ...I.....FUCK!
"And, y'know...y'know....FUCK!"
At this point, another kid on the floor, in all seriousness started yelling back, "I feel ya, man!"
"For years...and...FUCK!"
"I feel ya!"
"You guys all...FUCK!"
"I'm with ya!"
"Ahhhh FUCK IT!" At that same moment he kicked the boombox breaking it and said, "Where my keys?"
Thankfully they'd been long hidden.
Posted by fad at 7:48am
Sign up for your free spam from Uncle Sam.
Anyone who signs up with the new National Cyber Alert System will receive e-mails about major virus outbreaks and other Internet attacks as they occur, along with detailed instructions to help computer users protect themselves.Plus they'll include offers to buy some "John Ashcroft Sings Of Jesus And So Should You" CDs and tapes.
[...]
The new alert system puts the government in direct competition with dozens of companies and organizations that already transmit similar cyber warnings, and could renew criticisms about earlier, disjointed government efforts that frequently sounded Internet warnings hours or even days after major computer attacks and occasionally included incorrect information.
Posted by fad at 6:53am
Kerry and Edwards aren't the only ones coming to town.
The Rev. Al Sharpton also has chosen St. Louis for his first major day of campaigning in the state. He's holding a series of events today in St. Louis, including two public rallies, at the University of Missouri at St. Louis and at the Gateway Classic Foundation. Sharpton will be accompanied by some of his prominent supporters, spokesman Eddie Hasan said.The first rally will also include a door prize drawing for who gets to be falsely accused of rape. The second rally will end with the traditional crowd incited to destroy a local Jewish owned clothing shop. If someone is killed in the destruction, it means good luck for the year ahead.
Posted by fad at 6:01am
January 27th, 2004
John Kerry, while clankily naming himself the Underdog, really has created an impressive comeback overall. He was dead. Iowa rejuvinated him leading to a huge turnaround in New Hampshire. He's got a major problem with the South, but so does everyone else but Edwards.
Dean's results aren't bad, but still low being a neighbor and all. I think, more than anything else, he peaked way too early. I really don't know if Dean can recapture things at this point. It's clearly a two man race, but Dean is fading right now and will be worse off after Tuesday. By not competing in many states, he's giving a huge perception lead to Kerry. He may win a state, but Kerry will have more by default.
Edwards did OK, but he just wanted his name being mentioned prior to South Carolina. I still don't think he has a chance.
Clark, despite the endorsement of my cube neighbor*, has to be really disappointed. He spent a lot of time in New Hampshire. He needed a very strong third or a second here to get his campaign really going. The main sign with him is that no one is talking about him anymore.
I expected Lieberman to get single digits. Last I saw he was at 10%. That's better than I expected, but, really, it's done. Democrats, at least the very partisian types participating in the primaries, clearly want new names and faces. They also don't want people strong on the war. I expect he'll stay in through next Tuesday, though.
*Someone tried to crush his dissent today upon seeing the Clark bumper sticker. "Clark? You're not serious, are you?"
Posted by fad at 7:20pm
In a followup to this Pooh post, I give you this. Needs sound and time you want to waste.
UPDATE: Well, damn. Stupid thing doesn't appear to work in any browser. Oh well, your loss.
Posted by fad at 5:53pm
I can't wait for that "The Perfect Score" movie to open so that it can die and the ads can finally stop. It's either that or I have to go back to the cat killing again.
Posted by fad at 4:59pm
And the cliches keep coming.
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, who has spent five years as a senator, assumed the mantle of Washington outsider Monday as he pressed toward the finish of the New Hampshire primary campaign.Let's see. The standard roles are the Outsider, the Underdog, since '92 the Comeback Kid, and probably a couple others. It's so damn predictable. It's really annoying that the media just plays along every time. So Edwards wants to be the Outsider. Kerry, despite winning Iowa and leading ever since in New Hampshire, is the Underdog and the Comeback Kid.
Dean's just creepy.
Posted by fad at 4:02pm
The Democratic primary here in Missouri is next Tuesday (which I think is Super Tuesday). Some of the people in the cubes around me are starting to get into the spirit by decorating their cube with bumperstickers and posters. So far we have two Deans and one Clark supporter.
Posted by fad at 1:18pm
Here's a depressing story with a little bit of everything.
Edward Goldman and Inessa Lemashova - Soviet Jews who came to America with hopes for a better life - devoted themselves to their only child,Ok, so far not so bad. Let's learn a bit about the son.
The younger Goldman married an immigrant from the Ukraine, Irina Sapiro, now 42. He most recently worked as a handyman at a computer company.He was married, trying to provide for his family.
The next day, on Jan. 11, the elder Goldman, 66, and his wife visited their 22-month-old grandson, who has been hospitalized since his premature birth with severe breathing problems and other ills.Married with an ill, nearly two year old son. That's where the depressing stuff starts to happen.
Friends say he met Zonis, another married immigrant from the former Soviet Union, when she taught a computer class he took about 10 years ago. At some point they started an affairSo he was having an affair with a married woman. "Was" being an operative word because she was murdered at the end of December.
While the motive remains unclear, the killer was clearly angry with her, stabbing her seven times and smashing her face, authorities said.Quite astute of them to notice the anger. I would have thought he hit her because he loved her. Now it starts to get even worse.
While Paul Goldman was on the lam, prosecutors arrested his wife for allegedly covering for him by telling police he was shopping with her the night of the crime and away on business when he had fled the country.His wife covered for him.
Goldman's parents also helped him, accompanying him to New York, where Goldman and his father boarded a plane to Germany on Jan. 7, authorities said. The elder Goldman gave his son a bagful of cash and a relative's address, then flew home, authorities said.This would make for one hell of a depressing movie.
[...]
Then the couple returned to their apartment and slit their wrists, Lemashova dying in the bathtub, her husband on the floor beside her.
Posted by fad at 1:10pm
Ooo! New celebrity sex tape!
"This is a tape that was made 15 years ago, while Julius and his wife were separated," spokesman Dan Klores said Monday. "The decision by his wife's advisers to release it during their divorce negotiations is disappointing, especially since Mrs. Erving has had it in her possession for all these years."Ain't love grand?
The tape shows the 53-year-old Erving having sex with a young woman in a hotel room while a radio plays, the newspaper said.Eh...I'll pass.
Posted by fad at 11:57am
Ok, so this is the main focus of the story.
Security guards at the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge stunned inspectors in June by successfully repelling four simulated terrorist attacks - a feat computer programs predicted wouldn't be done.Blah blah blah we're all gonna die. More important is this:
That apparent success was tarnished, according to the Energy Department: Employees of an outside security contractor were tipped off about the impending simulations, making the tests a costly waste of time.
The plant paid Wackenhut award fees of $2.2 million and rated its work "outstanding" for the period through July 2003. The cheating reported by the inspector general had taken place just weeks earlier."Wackenhut" is a funny name.
Posted by fad at 9:38am
I might just have to go vegetarian after all.
Chicken waste, restaurant scraps and blood products are to be banned from cattle feed as part of new measures to protect Americans from mad cow disease, the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday.I'm sorry. A burger just isn't a burger unless the cow was chickenshit fed.
[...]
Banning chicken waste, known in the industry as "poultry litter," from livestock feed. Poultry litter consists of bedding, spilled feed, feathers and fecal matter collected from where chickens live.
Posted by fad at 9:08am
This will be commented on and joked about everywhere today. I might as well join the crowd.
Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean.Funnyman? That's more of a stretch than US and world intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs. I never found him to be funny even long before he came out as a political type. In fact, I'm less distressed by his politics than the fact that his politics returned him to media attention. I was happy when he was gone.
"I'm neutral in this race but I'm for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down."Hmmm....interesting policy. I wonder if he has a newsletter I could subscribe to. I guess this means the secret service should have tackled all the Democrats who booed and hissed during the State of The Union Bore and Spendathon.
The trouble started when several supporters of fringe presidential candidate Lyndon Larouche began shouting accusations at Dean.Well, we know Larouche has a newsletter. I miss the days when he'd buy airtime for a 30 minute looney. I loved watching those as a kid.
Posted by fad at 8:56am
Man, somedays it really sucks to be American. I mean, we're just so stupid. And we're not funny, nor do we get the humo[u]r of our betters (as we bloggers were informed just the other day). Just read the comments to that story to find out how bad we are.
I guess I'd best start turning my life around and start using Britishism in my everyday speech. Soon my posts will be peppered with "maths", "shag", "whilst" and more extra "u"s than you can shake a u-shakin' stick at just to annoy you.
UPDATE: Sweet! One comment on that article managed to bring up Alanis Morisette, who is Canadian, as evidence of American misunderstanding of irony.
Posted by fad at 8:54am
We finally know where Kerry and Edwards will be appearing in town.
Kerry plans to hold a public rally in the student center at St. Louis Community College's Forest Park campus at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Sources say the Massachusetts senator may be joined by Missouri's last two Democrats in the Senate, Jean Carnahan and Thomas F. Eagleton, who are expected to endorse Kerry.I'd say those endorsements have a lot to do with tonight's results. If Kerry wins New Hampshire or is very strong, he'll get those endorsements. Which mean....well, I don't know. Then again, St. Louis is a machine town that votes the way it is told.
At 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, Edwards will drop by Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Avenue in University City, to meet voters. Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, will be coming from an earlier stop in Springfield, Mo., where he plans to address the public at Southwest Missouri State University.I'm wonder where exactly they are going to set him up at Blueberry Hill. Doesn't seem the best place for a meet-n-greet. Unless they aren't expecting all that many people, that is. The two "rooms" can hold a couple hundred each, I suppose. If you go, I highly recommend the long island ice teas. They make 'em good there, and it'll make Edwards' lawyerin' talk go down better.
Posted by fad at 8:28am
The Academy Award nominations are out. On January 1st, I made this prediction.
Return of the King will not win Best Picture at the Oscars©™õû. Fanboys and girls who have always claimed that these awards are meaningless will demonstrate how much it actually meant to them by writing furious posts about how meaningless the award is.I'm guessing the bitching will start just over the nominations.
Posted by fad at 8:16am
I know it's a hopeless cause, but I had really hoped the terms "red state"/"blue state" would die. But partisans won't let them. At least James Taranto's ridiculous "porn belt" never caught on.
Posted by fad at 8:08am
Hmmm...easy money is hard to turn down.
Jamie Saphier and her partner Sarah Watkinson paid £1,500 for sperm from the website ManNotIncluded.com.Hell, this man is already not included in anything. Might as well get paid for it.
[...]
Prospective donors, who are paid around £40 per donation, undergo what the company calls rigorous fertility and blood tests when they sign up.
Posted by fad at 7:33am
Well, this is one place that won't be hanging the "No Fat Chicks" sign any time soon.
A generation ago, over a third of women in the country were force-fed as children - Mauritania is one of the few African countries where, on average, girls receive more food than boys.All they need are some party hats and we'd have ourselves a living website.
Now only around one in 10 girls are treated this way. The treatment has its roots in fat being seen as a sign of wealth - if a girl was thin she was considered poor, and would not be respected.
Posted by fad at 7:30am
Newsflash! Girls are sometimes mean.
Simmons' second book, "Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write about Bullies, Cliques, Popularity and Jealousy," was published in December. A collection of poems, songs and essays, the book sheds light on the particular brand of nastiness girls inflict on one another.Poems, songs and essays will fix that problem. Plus, this chick speaks girltalk.
Simmons -- an animated speaker whose talk is peppered with girlspeak like "ohmygod," and "whatever" -- empathized and offered insight.That means she was connecting. Don't worry, though. This is all society's fault.
Simmons contends there is a "hidden culture of girls' aggression," spawned by a society that denies girls the right to deal with conflict openly.That's it. I say we don't talk to society for the rest of the week. Plus I'll start a rumor that society is a slut. That'll show it.
Posted by fad at 7:20am
January 26th, 2004
Posted by fad at 5:50pm
Oh boy. I can not wait.
John Kerry will visit St. Louis on Wednesday, the day after the New Hampshire primary, which could make him the first candidate to visit the state since Missouri's presidential primary suddenly became competitive, The Associated Press has learned.I'd take off work to go see him speak, but something tells me I'd actually prefer even this work to that.
The Kerry campaign said the Massachusetts senator will appear at a St. Louis location to be announced later Monday.
Posted by fad at 2:45pm
LIES!
Iron Maiden offered its sympathy to fans whose concert experience was ruined by a beer over the weekend.Beer brings only happiness and joy! Something else must have caused the rock to stop. The rock cannot be stopped by beer, only aided!
[...]
The beer landed below on the mixing board. It blew out several channels and kept the band from playing any encores.
Posted by fad at 1:08pm
France and Germany, labeled, as usual, as being the entirety of the EU, want once again to sell arms to China legitimately. Knowing the French government's ways, I think it is safe to assume they have been selling arms all along, despite an embargo. I have no proof of that. Just going on past behavior.
Foreign ministers discussed the issue Monday, with some sounding confident the ban will be removed. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said a decision should be made at the next summit of EU leaders in March.Now they are confident it will happen, but look at this list who oppose it.
[T]the Netherlands, Scandinavian nations, the European Parliament and human rights groups oppose to such a step.But France and Germany get what France and Germany want. All those loser countries need to learn to shut up, Chirac will be sure to tell them once again.
They give all sorts of reasons why this isn't a bad idea, but raise your hand if you think this is an attempt to help China create a military check to the US. It's always better to do those things by proxy. Well, until they, inevitably, bite you in the ass.
Posted by fad at 11:08am
Now this is just sad.
Writing off speculation that he may make a poor showing in New hampshire and drop out of the race, Lieberman told CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer that his campaign is picking up, as he put it, "Joementum."I think that is the official end of his campaign right there. Dean may be a hotheaded pyscho, but at least he isn't a dork like Lieberman or a desperate-to-be-cool loser like Kerry.
Posted by fad at 9:30am
What great news! The mob is finding new ways to be in gambling.
God bless their entrepreneurial spirit. The world makes a little more sense knowing this sort of thing is going on.
There has been a disturbing expansion of mob-controlled video gambling, according to the Cook County sheriff's office.
[...]
Hundreds of machines operate in the Chicago area. One machine can make as much as $100,000 in profits a year. Half goes to the bar, half to the mob.
Typically, a mobster collects a tax in exchange for protection and permission to use the machine. "Because the bar owner himself is breaking the law, he cannot seek assistance from law enforcement and must comply," the Chicago Crime Commission said. By one estimate, half of the businesses with liquor licenses have video gambling, the commission said.
Posted by fad at 8:28am
Some people have thought the 3rd place Dean finish in Iowa was a sign that anger wasn't the major motivation of caucasers and voters, but electability is. However, I think electibability is just another more focused version of the anger motivation.
"I want somebody that will beat George Bush, basically, and I truly believe that Kerry has a better chance of doing that," said Morrison, a 44-year-old marketing analyst from Merrimack.They really don't seem to care one whit for the ideas or positions just as long as whatever it is can beat George Bush. If they thought a crusty old blow-up lovedoll could win, they'd be backing that.
Posted by fad at 8:24am
Remember the all the hype and nonsense about "Scarlett", the unofficial "sequel" to "Gone With The Wind"? Well, the author died. Don't worry, she made it to 70, dying of natural causes.
Had they decided to do that sequel today, it would probably be mingled with a year long reality show following the trials of the author as she tried to create this wonderous and needed work.
Actually, little known fact: I am writing the third book right now to close out the trilogy. All good book serieses are trilogies. Having never seen then movie, nor read any of the books, I feel uniquely qualified for this task. Wait to you get to read the fight between the ents and the evil elves of northern Florida.
Posted by fad at 7:41am
That Castro. So giving.
President Fidel Castro, whose communist Cuba was once officially atheist, on Sunday gave the key for a new Byzantine cathedral to the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.Of course the press is a little confused by this.
It was unclear why Castro agreed to finance the church's construction, but Cuban authorities have been trying to demonstrate that the government respects freedom of worship.Or maybe, just maybe, it's because the leader of this church agreed to say things like this.
Shortly before the gift exchange, the patriarch spoke out against the U.S. trade embargo of more than four decades against Cuba.Nah, Castro respects freedom of thought. He wouldn't do something like this just to create another front, this time religious, to rail against America. He's too busy teaching everyone to read and checking prostates.
Posted by fad at 7:30am
Today's winner of the Word Combinations I Never Thought I'd See award is this:
"Break-dancers perform for the pope"
Posted by fad at 7:22am
Finally an uplifting story about people helping others provide a valuable service to the community.
Linda Whitten, a records room clerk at the Bridgeton Police Department, is accused of providing confidential information to help a prostitute spot undercover cops.But then Johnny Law has to step in and screw it up for everyone.
[...]
Maryland Heights police said they learned of Whitten's participation after they arrested a prostitute working out of her own home Jan. 18.
The next day, police said, they recorded a conversation in which the prostitute asked Whitten to check the name of a potential client to determine if he was an officer.
Posted by fad at 7:14am
January 25th, 2004
Good God, what a boring movie.
Posted by fad at 8:35pm
I hate it when they put two weeks between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. Just get it over with so I can go back on full time suicide watch. Feb 1st can't get over soon enough.
Posted by fad at 1:13pm
While it is gently snowing right now, a really sweet ice storm went through this morning leaving about 1/8 inch of ice on all the cars. I've already seen at least 3 people head out to de-ice their cars with a bucket of hot water. I'm listening carefully for the beautiful sound of shattering glass.
Posted by fad at 1:12pm
Excellent.
Scientists received new images of Mars taken by Opportunity early Sunday, just hours after the rover became the second of NASA's twin rovers to successfully land on the barren surface of the red planet.Already some nice pikturs back too. With Spirit seemingly in recovery and, though the lander failed, the European orbiter is doing some really good work, it's been a good few days for these high profile Mars studying things.
Posted by fad at 8:49am