Yes, just like all the others.
Just wanted to take a moment to say that U2's The Joshua Tree is one of the finest albums ever recorded. I, finally, sixteen years after its release, own it on CD, and without the benefit of Kazaa.
Ah, the glory days when U2 didn't suck eggs.
Moving along.
This post can also be found here and here. One by one, the blogosphere is mine. Or something.
AP: Live worms from Columbia experiments found in shuttle wreckage
Hundreds of worms being used in a science experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia have been found alive in the wreckage, NASA said today.The worms, known as C. elegans, were found in debris found in Texas several weeks ago. Technicians sorting through the debris at Kennedy Space Center in Florida didn't open the containers of worms and dead moss cells until this week.
All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1. Columbia contained almost 60 scientific investigations.
"To my knowledge, these are the only live experiments that have been located and identified," said Bruce Buckingham, a NASA spokesman at the Kennedy Space Center.
And they can always reunite them with their crew...
Why not go and play 20 Questions for a while? You can skip right over the demographic part if you so choose by clicking on "play."
Mindless fun - have to love it.
In his most recent essay, Bill Whittle ended with the following:
And I have one final wish, which I know seems very unlikely, but which I will share anyway.Well, Bill, if this is any indication, you might get your wish:I fervently hope that someday, perhaps decades from now, Iraq will have a really top-notch soccer team. I hope that one day, they will get to the final round of the World Cup, and when they do, I hope it is Team USA they play for the championship.
I hope that the Americans play a tough, aggressive, masterful game, that they use all of the speed and skill and power at their command. And then I want to sit there watching TV as an old man, and watch the faces on the Iraqi people when the game is over, because I want to see that the most relieved and joyous they can conceive of being, is the day that tiny Iraq got out on that soccer field and kicked our ass.
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) -- U.S. Marines may consider themselves an elite fighting force, but they were no match for an Iraqi soccer side who thrashed them 7-0 in the southern town of Najaf.
Link found via Zachary B.
If the underage drinking wasn't enough to make her dad feel a little red in the face, perhaps this will help:
Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt is hunting for a videotape rumoured to show first daughter Barbara Bush in the nude, reports The New York Post.Apparently "good judgement" is not a trait that runs very strongly in the First Twins.Flynt's cohorts are scouring the New Haven, Connecticut, campus of Yale University, where Barbara, 21, is a student, in hopes of buying a video supposedly made at one of Yale's notorious "naked parties."
REUTERS: Fish Do Feel Pain, Say British Scientists
Of course they do. Otherwise my Chinese Fish Torture technique of extracting information from haddock wouldn't work so well...
Anglers take note -- British scientists say that after years of debate, they now have proof that fish feel pain.Animal activists are on the warpath after a study released on Wednesday showed how rainbow trout react to discomfort. They condemned fishing as cruel and demanded an end to the sport -- but anglers themselves dismissed the study.
The research found that fish have receptors in their heads and that subjecting them to noxious substances causes "adverse behavioral and physiological changes." "This fulfils the criteria for animal pain," said Dr Lynne Sneddon who headed the research, published on Wednesday by the Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science.
Bee venom or acetic acid was injected into the lips of some of the trout, while control groups of fish were injected with saline solution or merely handled. The trout injected with venom or acid began to show "rocking" motion -- similar to that seen in stressed higher vertebrates -- and those injected with acetic acid began rubbing their lips in the gravel of their tank.
"These do not appear to be reflex responses," Sneddon said.
So when you hook a fish, remember that you're causing it pain. Be sure to reel it in quickly and whack it with a lead weight to minimize that pain. Gut, fillet, and fry with butter and lemon.
Your tax dollars hard at work:
Internet users skeptical of junk e-mails promising easy money, miracle cures and dream dates are right to be wary: The government says two-thirds of the "spam" messages clogging online mailboxes probably are false in some way.I'd never have guessed!
"In one way or another, a great deal of it appears to contain important information that is false or deceptive," said Eileen Harrington, the FTC's director of marketing practices.Ms. Harrington went on to say that the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West.
Impressive.
Jack Osbourne, son of Ozzie and Sharon Osbourne (heads of a family people used to give a damn about for some inexplicable reason) and sister of international rock icon Kelly Osbourne (and as memory serves the ex-husband of Lisa Marie Presley Keogh Jackson Coppola), is currently in rehab. This comes as an extreme shock to... uh... no one, or as Willie Wonka once observed:
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It's official - the WWRunt will be entering the world this Friday, sometime after 10:30am. Still being a stubborn breech baby, the c-section is a go-ahead.
I suspect my blogging will be intermittent at best in the days following, and probably all focused on dirty diapers, spit-up, and the like. Lileks has some competition!
OK, maybe not.
Either way, the sheer terror and immense joy of impending fatherhood have bubbled to the surface. Yikes.
Let's see what's happening in Israel this morning:
JERUSALEM POST: Abu Mazen tells terrorists to lay down weapons
So, what did the terrorists do?
REUTERS: Palestinian Militants Say They Won't Disarm
No, Reuters, we want to know what the terrorists are going to do, not these so-called militants that you speak of.
I think this Iraqi quote speaks for itself. Too funny:
His friend, Abbas Ali, concurs. "We used to go to sleep at 10 p.m. Now we stay up until 4 or 5 a.m. because we can't get enough." Still desperate for war news, they tune to CNN, BBC, and what appears to be a local favorite, Fox. They like it, people here say, because it has been the most supportive of the war.And, no, it's not from Fox either.
(found at Instapundit, of course)
A quick one before bed.
I just went to the master bedroom to get ready for bed, when - at 10:30pm on a Monday night - I came across my wife standing in the shower scrubbing away any and all traces of soap scum. Mind you, she's cleaned the shower before, but not with as much energy and determination as I witnessed mere moments ago - even more strange considering her energy was pretty well sapped but two hours ago.
Ah, the miracle of nesting.
I should have seen it coming sooner, I suppose. She's been lamenting the sorry state of some of our bath towels for the first time in six years. She's continually making adjustments to the collection of items she has packed for the hospital. She's folded and organized every piece of clothing and hardware in the nursery. She even cleaned the inside of the microwave this evening without a bit of encouragement from me.*
If only I could bottle this urge without having to go through the whole pregnancy thing, I'd be rich. Or at least living in a spotless house.
It's almost scary. Good thing this is all almost over (aside from the 18-21 years of dependence to follow).
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OK, I'm bored, but if you want to know some trivia about one of the best movies ever made, then check out this. And if you don't, or if you disagree, that's fine. I mean, you're wrong, but it's fine.
Mayor Webb continues his fight against the rights of property owners with a proposed smoking ban in Denver:
"The issue is very simple," Webb said during a news conference on the steps of the Denver City and County Building. "It's about life and death. It's about quality of life. It's a health issue.""If a person goes in a restaurant and wants to be free of second-hand smoke, they should be able to do that," he added.
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Apple has come up with a model for online music distribution that even has the five major labels on-board.
The service announced Monday removes several limitations that have so far reduced legitimate online music distribution to a small niche in the entertainment industry.At first glance, it sounds like a pretty good plan to me - I'd be happy to pay 99 cents a song, with one caveat: they should make low quality MP3s available for auditioning of music before purchase. If I download a song and it sucks, I'm still out nearly a buck (and that can feed 400 children for a week in socialist fantasyland) - so some kind of pre-purchase listening is a must.For example, consumers can buy songs and keep them for as long as they want, share playlists on up to three Macintosh computers, and transfer them to any number of portable iPods so they can hear their music on the road. No subscriptions are necessary, and buyers can burn unlimited copies of the songs onto CDs.
"It's not free, but it's 99 cents a song, pretty doggone close," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. "There's no legal alternative that's worth beans."
You know, if you're reading this, Mr. Jobs.
REUTERS: Palestinian Love Affair with Saddam Sours
Know what fixes things right up with your bitches, Saddam? Try 1-800-FLOWERS. They can then fill the vases with flaming gasoline to throw at tanks and use the flowers for the funerals.
WARNING: DO NOT CLICK THESE LINKS IF YOU'RE AT WORK!!!
When I first heard about Netflix (which I give two enthusiastic thumbs up too, btw) I wondered how long it would be before somebody would link the whole "DVDs at home" theme to "nekkid people gettin' it on". It's here now, in case you're wondering, whether you're gay or straight.
WARNING: DO NOT CLICK THESE LINKS IF YOU'RE AT WORK!!!
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I concede that shoplifting is bad and celebrities should be prosecuted like everybody else, but is it really fair to require $20,000 in bail for $400 in (allegedly) stolen items?
Poor, widdle Rev is upset about my changing his comments here. How do I know? Oh, simply because he's whining about it in an e-mail to me and a couple other bloggers (and he calls me whiny? Look in the mirror, pumpkin).
So, here's the last word on it, Rev. Actually, two of them. Tough shit. You've been warned countless times to cool it with the vitriol - and each time, you have refused. You have only yourself to blame, so get over it.
You think I'm oppressing you because you disagree with me? God, you sound like the Dixie Chicks or Martin Sheen. One need only look around to see that I don't mind disagreement - what I do mind (and you know this already) is, well, you. You, as a human being, entirely separate from any arguments you may care to make. I. Don't. Like. You.
And, trust me, I'm not alone in that sentiment.
Got it? Good.
You want me to be accountable for changing your comments? Uh, I admitted to it right in the comments thread. There was nothing secretive about it. You're literate, right? Or are you really just a room full of monkeys who get lucky when writing screeds?
Nevermind, I don't want to know - I still won't like you, regardless. Have a nice day!
Oh, and be sure to visit his site in the coming days! He's threatening to use that poor, armless Iraqi boy's story in order to mock me - and he says we're the ones who exploit the boy? Yeah, right!
We regret the loss of innocent life - and he uses it for laughter. That's the sign of a sick, sad, little man, no? Someone should send him a kitten.
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HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: 'Star Wars' faves back for 'Episode III'
Peter Mayhew, aka "Chewbacca," will be back for Episode 3 of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy.
I guess that means he has to stop shaving as of... ten years ago?
NSYNC is bad.
Fan fiction is worse.
NSYNC fan fiction is beyond our worst nightmares.
Hold us, mommy.
It takes a pretty big set of balls to say something like this in print. And an even bigger set when you're in the South.
Good work, Ed.
We get strategery, and the Brits get this.
Science and progressThere's more.By Tony Blair
London: The last century was one of remarkable scientific achievement. But perhaps no single breakthrough will have a greater impact than the discovery 50 years ago today of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the molecule of life. It laid the foundation for modern bioscience and opened the door to many of the stunning advances we are now seeing in medicine and pharmaceuticals, and in plant and animal sciences.
No wonder Vicky has got such a thing for Mr. Blair.
What would your local police do if you were to proclaim yourself and your cronies as (unelected) mayor of your neighborhood? Of course, you probably live in America, where you'd be locked up for a bit and sent off for psychiatric examination.
Let's see how Baghdad, Looterland does things with America in the mix:
AP: U.S. Seizes Self-Proclaimed Baghdad Mayor
An Iraqi exile who had proclaimed himself Baghdad's mayor and begun issuing directives to city workers was arrested Sunday by U.S. forces, who accused him of exerting authority he didn't have.Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi was arrested at 5 p.m. in downtown Baghdad "for his inability to support the coalition military authority and for exercising authority which was not his," U.S. military spokesman Capt. David Connolly said in Baghdad. Soldiers arrested seven others found with al-Zubaidi, Connolly said without identifying them. He said he was unsure where the men were taken but indicated they were in U.S. custody.
We're the civilizin' factor.
Now riddle me this. What if we, the Coalition, hadn't been there?
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Hmmm, interesting:
LONDON (AP) -- Documents discovered in the bombed out headquarters of Iraq's intelligence service provide evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, a newspaper reported Sunday.We shall see. Just sayin' is all.
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Yes, this is much better. We always knew those Dixie Chicks fancied us.
Didn't these people see Lethal Weapon 3 where Joe Pesci said "They really f*** you in the drive-through?" I guess they were tired of getting just a few of those small ketchup packets.
An elderly couple have been arrested in the US for allegedly performing a sex act in a booth at a fast food restaurant. The 70-year-old man and 59-year-old woman have also been banned from Hardee's restaurant in New Philadelphia.Police charged both with public indecency after receiving complaints from restaurant employees and a customer. Traffic Officer Shawn Nelson told the Times Reporter that police had received previous reports about the same two people allegedly performing lurid acts in the parking lot, or inside the restaurant.
However, he said, this was the first time they had still been at the restaurant by the time officers arrived.
Here's a few altered fast food slogans for you to ponder
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Apparently, it is Stephen Green's birthday.
Happy birthday!
We have been more than patient with Reverend Mykeru. We've overtly extended the hand of friendship...only to have it repeatedly bitten. We've explained our positions at excruciating length and in extensive detail, repeatedly emphasizing that simply because we think the war with Iraq was justified (it was,) that we don't necessarily believe in other aspects of the Bush White House's agenda. Total Information Awareness, the Halliburton "uncontracts," John Ashcroft's appointment to attorney general, etc. The list goes on and on.
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Now that AIDS and cancer and school shootings are solved, we can finally take on this problem. I think it's disgusting that pop-culture would attempt to make a mockery of Christianity when LaHaye and Jenkins are already doing a better job of it than UPN ever could.
This is an interesting read. Not really surprising to me, having read Woodward's Bush At War, but for those who haven't read it, the article in question is a good introduction to why we pushed Iraq toward war.
This was the day that changed everything about American foreign policy. It was also the day I stopped being a multi-lateralist in favor of hugs and bunnies to ease the world's woe.
I agree with using American power to intimidate terrorist-sponsoring states and to spread the seeds of democratic thought. Obviously no one else is doing it.
If you don't agree, that's fine. I honestly don't care.
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Here's what pisses me off:
How does the nickel compare? The U.S. Mint issued approximately 1.2 billion new nickels last year. Designed to last for well over one hundred years, nickels are usually taken out of circulation every thirty years.
It's worth five goddamned cents, we make 1.2 billion of them a year, and it lasts a hundred years.
By comparison, I bought a limited-edition $200 American-made bread machine a while back and it barely lasted two years. The custom bonding on my incisors sets my insurance back a grand, can't be bleached white, and it has to be replaced every four years until I push up the daisies or decide that gumming my gumbo is a good idea. Heck, my never-recalled $10,000 Ringed Planet Cult of Rural Tennessee plastic-and-glass car lasted five until I traded it in for a Nazimobile piece of crap. And the fresh pothole I ran over last October that bent one of the rims had just been filled in by Mayor Lee P. "Out Of Town Brown's" henchturds in orange reflective vests the week before.
I think the people who design the nickel need to start designing everything else in this country.
Whoops, don't know how I missed this. Laurence has a way with the English language, no?
In a brilliant flash of genius designed to continually reinforce the notion that PETA is full of wackos, Ingrid Newkirk (the President of the organization) has developed this plan:
The leader of a prominent U.S.-based animal rights group said she had drawn up a will directing that her flesh be barbecued and her skin used to make leather products in protest at man's ill-treatment of animals.Ingrid, darling, if you happen to end up as a jacket, I wear a Large. And I'm sure my wife would love a new handbag. Oh, and a wallet for me as well.
Just think, everytime I remove it to give money* to organizations that aren't complete lunatics, I'll remember you, and PETA, and how you're all obviously crazy.
* Heh, that's a lie, everyone knows that "people like me" don't give money to others. It's all part of being a pathetic excuse for a human being.
There's a bit of a brouhaha in Denver regarding a recent increase in parking meter fees and fines. And a bit of a disconnect in the city government's rationale for the changes:
City officials say they raised prices and increased the hours for meters because Denver needs the money. They also want the meter policies to encourage people to do more short-term parking downtown, opening up more spaces for more shoppers.Of course, Denver needs more money - and in typical government fashion, rather than seek ways to cut their own costs, to operate more efficiently - that is, to live by the rules that businesses live by - it decides to just demand more of our money."There are more spaces open. It makes the city more accessible," said Anderson Moore, acting director of parking management.
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We might be child-bride taking, child abusing ignorant desert dwelling white-trash, but we have feelings!
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REUTERS: Study Looks at Contraceptive, Herpes Risk in Mice
New research in mice suggests that women who use the injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera may have a higher risk of infection with genital herpes than non-users. Normally, mice will only develop genital herpes if they are exposed to extremely high concentrations of the virus that causes the condition.However, researchers at McMaster University in Canada discovered that mice that received Depo-Provera were 100 times more susceptible to infection with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) than untreated mice were.
I guess it's back to putting tiny condoms on all my mice when they want to have sex.
Caitlin Hall, a columnist for the Daily Wildcat of the University of Arizona, lays waste to the deceit of the likes of creationist Dwayne Gish and the Calvary Chapel of Tucson.
Ah, kids today. Gotta love'em.
By now, we've all heard of this charming provision of the Patriot Act:
The threat, according to booksellers and librarians, comes from the federal government and a provision of the USA Patriot Act in Section 215 that authorizes the FBI to obtain "certain business records" based on warrants from secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courts, which under changes instituted by USA Patriot do not require that the government show probable cause.And, we're probably all aware of the efforts afoot to make the Patriot Act a permanent piece of legislation, removing the sunset clauses that were put in as assurances to our long-term civil liberties.The law, passed by Congress less than two months after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, also makes it illegal for a business — including libraries or bookstores — whose client records are demanded to tell anyone about it, even the person whose purchase or borrowing records are demanded.
So what do we do about it?
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Let's see Andrew Lloyd Webber top this.
Maybe next, the "Lovely Ladies" number from Les Mis will go interactive.
It'll be interesting in a few years when this has run the circuit and is being done in Florida dinner theaters. I can imagine the retired actuary now: "Could you hurry this up, hot lips- I wanna get back to the buffet before the Jambalaya's all gone..."
Twixt a family emergency, an exceptionally busy period at work (final projects/exams), and moving to a new apartment, my posting has lagged a bit, but I’ll post this quite humorless and largely purposeless piece as my volley to a fallen--- acquaintance of note. Don’t read beyond this if you’re looking for fluff, depth, or a point.
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Too funny - today's news from my former home, Alabama:
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) -- Unless Alabama's election law is changed, there could be one notable candidate missing from the state's 2004 presidential election ballot -- President Bush.Whoops.The problem is that the Republican National Convention is being held later than usual to avoid conflict with the Olympics, and the GOP won't choose a candidate until September 2 -- two days after Alabama's August 31 deadline to certify presidential contenders.
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