jwz - "It happens some times. People just explode.": "We got new playground equipment installed at my elementary school, including a plastic twisty slide. I soon learned that going down the slide on a dry winter day would cause a static charge to build up on my body. So I made a metal rod out of a coathanger and I'd go down the slide about 5 times and then shock the shit out of people with my death wand.

As usual, the clueless playground supervisors had no idea what I was doing, and the reason I finally got it taken away was because I could poke somebody's eye out, and not because I was gleefully delivering painful shocks to my victims."

Forbes.com - Magazine Article: "he need for a screw with threads shaped to mate with the substance it is penetrating has always been out there. But the screw is so simple and cheap--most cost less than a penny apiece to make--that it has been easier to design around its deficiencies than to come up with a better model. But LeVey, 40, says he was 'too dumb'to listen to naysayers; with his name on 19 patents and with 18 more pending, he thought it was silly to keep working around the problem when he could try making a better screw.

LeVey's first target was the concrete screw. He bought a chisel at Home Depot and studied the business end of it. If only he could wrap teensy chisel tips into the threads of a screw, it could chip its way into a tight seat instead of compressing and cracking the concrete. He traveled to ITW factories around the country, asking the wizened experts how it could be done. 'I got laughed out the door,' LeVey says.

Screws are made, oddly enough, by squeezing metal rather than cutting it. A steel or alloy blank, a cylinder with no threads, is rolled between two heavy dies that are grooved with diagonal lines. The blank is put under so much pressure that metal is squished into the diagonal grooves, forming a threaded spiral. Manipulating the shape of the threads using this method, called thread-rolling, was thought to be impossible because it would be too hard to control the structure of the screw if metal oozed into odd shapes."

Daily Kos: State of the Nation: "'Bush says he doesn't want to play the 'Blame Game.' Makes sense. Never heard of a chicken who wanted to play the 'Extra Crispy' game.'"

jwz - Bush asks Condoleezza for permission to go potty: "When I visited the American Museum in St. Pete, Florida, they had an immense collection of JFK paraphanelia, including his personal notes. The country would have slept much better knowing that during the Cuban missile crisis, when the world was about an hour away from nuclear war, his notepad consisted of little more than hand-sketched pictures of sailboats."

House in Progress: What have we learned so far about old things?

jwz: " mplayer -dumpstream -playlist url -dumpfile filename.wmv"

dumping streaming windows media.

Google Groups : microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support: "Hi

Please try the following links to Jim Eshelman's web site:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm
http://aumha.org/win5/a/tshoot.htm

-- "

Louisiana's Wetlands National Geographic Magazine: "Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. "

Getting Things Done, OmniOutliner, and syncing to paper at Litwack.org

Tom's Hardware Guide PCs & HowTo: Supersize Your TV for $300: Build Your Own XGA Projector! - Giant Wall Display: "The well-known auction portal eBay has just about everything. For some time now, several sellers there have offered instructions for building a so-called 'multimedia projector', as well as other 'bargains' designed to help the customer get a giant screen at home without too much financial outlay. This is how it works: the seller offers a PDF construction guide for $20 in a 'buy it now' auction that contains everything the customer needs to know. But does it really work? "

About.com: http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/interiors/paneling/conceal.htm

How to Texture a Ceiling by Hand - eHow.com: "Tips from eHow Users:
For 'old world' look... by Noel B.
My wife and I had great success after removing 'popcorn' ceiling from our house. Our 'look' was 'old world/ Mission' and we added a little 30 mesh sand to watered down compound, then used 10' knives to texture. Add as little, or as much, sand as you feel to adjust 'graininess.'"

Daily Kos: State of the Nation: "The lawlessness is rampant. It's important to note, however, that the lawlessness wasn't rampant on Monday. It wasn't rampant on Tuesday. We heard only twinges of it on Wednesday. Today, from the sounds of the reports, a city devoid of all hope devolved into absolute chaos.

It is nighttime again in New Orleans, and after four days of no food, no water, no communications, no security forces, and no apparent discernible plan that they can see, trust and hope that rescuers will arrive seems all but gone. If the forces had arrived on Tuesday, things would be different.

It is simply too stunning, too shocking, too soul-draining. Nobody knows where the emergency relief has been. Nobody can quite understand why the response to the catastrophe only now seems shuddering to life."