Sunday, March 30, 2008

My Experience with the CARET Program and Extra-Terrestrial Technology

My Experience with the CARET Program and Extra-Terrestrial Technology: "It's no surprise that these sightings are all taking place in California, and especially the Saratoga/South Bay area. Not far from Saratoga is Mountain View/Sunnyvale, home to Moffett Field and the NASA Ames Research center. Again, I'd be willing to bet just about anything that the device capable of hijacking the cloaking of these nearby craft was inadvertently triggered, probably during some kind of experiment, at the exact moment they were being seen. Miles away, in Big Basin, the witnesses were in the right place at the right time and saw the results of this disruption with their own eyes. God knows what else was suddenly appearing in the skies at that moment, and who else may have seen it. I've had some direct contact with this device, or at least a device capable of the same thing, and this kind of mistake is not unprecedented. I am personally aware of at least one other incident in which this kind of technology was accidentally set off, resulting in the sudden visibility of normally invisible things. The only difference is that these days, cameras are a lot more common!"

Daily Herald - State should settle bear lawsuit

Daily Herald - State should settle bear lawsuit: "The earlier attack was serious. About 5:30 a.m. a bear, apparently attracted by a cooler, went through a tent occupied by two young people. They got out, and with friends they threw rocks and fired pistols into the air to drive the bear away.

Wildlife officials designated the animal as a dangerous Level III bear and hunted for it, but without success. A wildlife official reportedly stayed at the site, but left before Sam and his family arrived."

frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS

frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS: "You're not talking about a diet with no carbs, just a reduced amount?

The underlying philosophy is this kind of Paleolithic diet theory. It's what we ate during the 2 million years that we were hunter-gatherers on this planet. The fact that we were hunter-gatherers for 2 million years suggests it was an extraordinarily successful evolutionary adaptation. The question is: What did we eat during these 2 million [years] when we left the jungle, the trees, went down into savanna and started surviving on whatever we could hunt or gather? That's the philosophy. The answer is, probably considerable meat, very low glycemic index, hard-to-digest roots and starches, and fruits and berries that look nothing at all like the beautiful Fuji applies you can buy at your local market now. Some carbohydrates, but whatever it was, it wasn't refined. It wasn't sugar. It wasn't flour. It wasn't easy to digest. That's my going theory. If this theory's right, the diet we evolved to eat is probably the correct diet."

frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS

frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS: "What made you go after this topic in the first place?

Two things. I'd been reporting on salt and blood pressure, which is a huge controversy, and some of the people involved in that were involved in the advice to tell Americans to eat low-fat diets, and they were terrible scientists. These were some of the worst scientists I'd ever come across in my 20-odd year career of writing about controversial science."

Friday, March 28, 2008

Gone Gaming: Game Store Confidential

Gone Gaming: Game Store Confidential: "Daddy, what's scurvy? The school nurse kept saying that word today.'

'That's what little girls get when they ask too many questions. Now finish putting the base coat on those wolf riders or there's going to be no birthday parties this year.'"

Gone Gaming: IP, Morality, and the Gaming Industry, Part Two: Developers

Gone Gaming: IP, Morality, and the Gaming Industry, Part Two: Developers: "John Bohrers has a history of legalistic combativeness that disregards the game player. My understanding is that his father is a patent attorney or copywright lawyer or some such thing, a fact which he bandies around like a threat. He attempts to intimidate people through the implied threat of a lawsuit for which he will pay no legal fees. This is probably especially intimidating to a foreigner faced with the American legal system and its less than stellar international reputation. John acts exclusively in his very-narrowly-defined self-interest that leaves him looking like he is indeed, a crackpot."

Rands In Repose: N.A.D.D.

Rands In Repose: N.A.D.D.: "Here’s a tip: If the building you are currently in is burning to the ground, go find the person with NADD on your floor. Not only will they know where the fire escape is, they’ll probably have some helpful tips about how to avoid smoke inhalation as well likely probabilities regarding the likelihood you’ll survive. How is it this Jr. Software Engineer knows all this? Who knows, maybe he read it on a weblog two years ago. Perhaps a close virtual friend of his in New York is a fire fighter. Does it matter? He may save your life or, better yet, keep you well informed with useless facts before you are burnt to a crisp."

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right : NPR

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right : NPR

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Big Phat Liar - March 26, 2008

Big Phat Liar - March 26, 2008: "In an October 2003 letter to a federal judge preparing to sentence his son on fraud and identity theft counts, Peter Sabatino recalled that James was a successful child model whose mother, an unknown B-movie actress, 'projected all of her dreams of fame and fortune onto her son.' When James was 11, Peter wrote, the boy's mother left home, never to come back. 'Shortly thereafter, I received a call from James' teacher that James had told her his mother had died in a car accident. Obviously this wasn't true but was his way of resolving the matter in his head and his heart.'

From that point, James's behavior spiraled out of control and he was 'expelled from twelve different schools, parochial, private and finally public.' At one point he even spent 30 days in a psychiatric facility. The only thing that calmed James, his father wrote, was long hours in front of the television, where the boy would 'anxiously wait for the credits and write down the names of producers, directors and others that he felt were influential in the production."

New Theories Suggest Kennedy Wasn't Shot | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

New Theories Suggest Kennedy Wasn't Shot | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "Still others, such as part-time music teacher and amateur ballistics specialist Luke Rossamer, refuse to rule out the possibility of lethal projectiles. According to Rossamer, bullet fragments that had lain dormant in Kennedy's head since World War II—when he was attacked by Navy frogmen who were bankrolled by mob boss Sam Giancana and disguised as a Japanese destroyer—were detonated by Ku Klux Klansmen on Nov. 22, 1963."

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Alex Bogusky - ihaveanidea

Alex Bogusky - ihaveanidea: "Alex: To be honest, I don’t think decisions matter that much. What matters is working your [---] off in between the decisions. And there’s something else I believe in: find your bliss. Find that one thing you really like doing and the decisions will make themselves."

Alex Bogusky - ihaveanidea

Alex Bogusky - ihaveanidea: "haveanidea: Talking about planning: someone once said that planning was “research done right”. Now when I look at the number of times your campaigns have really hit the sweet spot, it seems to me that Crispin Porter Bogusky’s strategic planning is “strategic planning done right”. Can you tell me a bit more about your so-called Cognitive and Cultural Studies department?
Alex: Looking at planning and trying to understand how to perfect it, we realized that planning is an extremely advertising centered thing. So we started bringing in people from universities like sociologists or anthropologists. We still have planners who were brought up in agencies but we have these scientists too who are sometimes such brain jars they can’t really take a meeting with the client.

ihaveanidea: You mean they are nerds?
Alex: Let’s call them academia."

Monday, March 24, 2008

The L Magazine, New York City's Local Event Guide

The L Magazine, New York City's Local Event Guide: "A co-worker recently asked me if I’d ever been to Phoenix. Born and raised in Queens, he’d just come back from visiting a relative in Arizona.

“I don’t know, man,” he said, “It’s pretty nice out there. Quiet. Cheap. Warm all the time. For like $200,000 you can get a big house in a good neighborhood.

“Everyone’s always like, about New York — ‘I want the restaurants. I want the bars. I want the excitement.’ Yeah, sure, whatever. I’m like, ‘just give it a few years.’

“Believe me. You get over it.” •"

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | What if Hillary hadn't gone to the Scullery?

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | What if Hillary hadn't gone to the Scullery?: "History might have marked her famous St Patrick’s Day speech as the turning point in her campaign. The press would have been talking about her ability to make us think, to challenge the way we do politics in this country. By standing up for a fellow Democrat she would have shown that her loyalty to others and to the truth was paramount and we would have loved her for it.

But Hillary did not do any of these things. She gathered up those dirty dishes and after she flung them she saw to her dismay there was muck all over her as well."

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | Why I can't vote for Hillary

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | Why I can't vote for Hillary: "The level of mendacity displayed by Hillary on a more-or-less regular basis nowadays, and the lengths to which the Clinton campaign, and Hillary herself, have gone to keep this primary process alive have so bothered me that I could never support her run for the presidency."

Friday, March 21, 2008

The Sporting Scene: Nails Never Fails: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

The Sporting Scene: Nails Never Fails: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker: "As of 2003, Dykstra had never used a computer, but he went about investing in the stock market with the same relentlessness and fearlessness that had characterized his playing career. He began sending e-mails to Jim Cramer, the host of “Mad Money,” on CNBC, with questions and tips."

Thursday, March 20, 2008

E-Mail From Aunt Accidentally Opened | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

E-Mail From Aunt Accidentally Opened | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "CHICAGO—An otherwise routine e-mail-checking session went wrong when college student Gwen Petersen, 20, accidentally opened a message sent by her Aunt Sophie in Michigan, sources reported Monday.

After correctly identifying the sender as KalamazooLady5237@aol.com, her mother's sister and a 57-year-old guidance counselor present at Petersen's birth, Petersen attempted to properly delete the unwanted correspondence as she had many times before. But one mistaken click of the mouse began an ordeal that would overtake Petersen's in-box for several minutes—thrusting the history major into an HTML-formatted world she 'never intended to see.'
Enlarge Image Mistakenly Opened Email

Petersen, above, says she and her computer may never recover from the terrible oversight."

Judge allows questioning in Clinton suit - Yahoo! News

Judge allows questioning in Clinton suit - Yahoo! News: "But while Clinton engaged in substantive meetings with foreign leaders over the eight years, the overseas events are heavy with more traditional appearances by a first lady.

The schedules show her meeting other political wives, having lunch with prominent women, touring cathedrals and hospitals and engaging in various ceremonial duties in trips to Japan, Russia and other countries.

The schedules showing Clinton's engagement on a wide range of matters are an outline and don't reflect phone calls or impromptu strategy sessions, says her presidential campaign."

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

What Would Obama Say? - New York Times

What Would Obama Say? - New York Times: "When he first met Mr. Obama, Mr. Favreau was 23, a recent graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., near where he grew up. Mr. Obama was rehearsing his 2004 convention speech backstage, when Mr. Favreau, then a member of John Kerry’s staff, interrupted him: the senator needed to rewrite a line from his speech to avoid an overlap.

“He kind of looked at me, kind of confused — like, ‘Who is this kid?’ ” Mr. Favreau recalled."

Abyss & Apex : Fourth Quarter 2007: Wikihistory

Abyss & Apex : Fourth Quarter 2007: Wikihistory: "International Association of Time Travelers: Members' Forum Subforum: Europe – Twentieth Century – Second World War
Page 263

11/15/2104
At 14:52:28, FreedomFighter69 wrote:
Reporting my first temporal excursion since joining IATT: have just returned from 1936 Berlin, having taken the place of one of Leni Riefenstahl's cameramen and assassinated Adolf Hitler during the opening of the Olympic Games. Let a free world rejoice!

At 14:57:44, SilverFox316 wrote:
Back from 1936 Berlin; incapacitated FreedomFighter69 before he could pull his little stunt. Freedomfighter69, as you are a new member, please read IATT Bulletin 1147 regarding the killing of Hitler before your next excursion. Failure to do so may result in your expulsion per Bylaw 223."

How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong

How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong: "Apple operates with a level of secrecy that makes Thomas Pynchon look like Paris Hilton."

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Muxton.com � Music OS X Tips � HOWTO Sync iTunes Playlist to your Mobile phone ( or non iPod MP3 Player ) - Mac OS X Only !

Muxton.com � Music OS X Tips � HOWTO Sync iTunes Playlist to your Mobile phone ( or non iPod MP3 Player ) - Mac OS X Only !: "By default there is a folder on the camera and also on the SD card ( once initialised ) called Music into which you can then drag your MP3 files from your PC’s hard disc. If you are a Mac iTunes user however there is a much more slick solution that I have come across which uses an Applescript from the popular Dougs Applescripts for iTunesExternal Link site. The script called “Sync playlist files to folder” is designed to synchronise an iTunes playlist to a folder that is accessible from your Mac. The script has to be very slightly edited then copied into your iTunes script folder, it will then be accessible from within iTunes to run."

A Closer Look at Black Liberation Theology : NPR

A Closer Look at Black Liberation Theology : NPR: "'Jesus says my mission is to eradicate poverty and to bring about freedom and liberation for the oppressed,' Hopkins says. 'And most Christian pastors in America skip over that part of the book.'"

Portrait: Arthur C Clarke | By genre | guardian.co.uk Books

Portrait: Arthur C Clarke | By genre | guardian.co.uk Books: "he Mirror claimed that Clarke had paid young boys for sex. It produced affidavits from the boys in question. Sri Lankan police later disproved them, he says. The story ran two weeks before Prince Charles flew to Sri Lanka to confer a knighthood on the grand old man of science fiction. The saga was the lowest point in his career. At a banquet in his honour Clarke, who has post polio syndrome, found himself hobbling away from the press, pursued by an unctuous reporter from the Daily Telegraph. The episode still upsets him. 'I take an extremely dim view of people mucking about with boys,' Clarke says. 'The whole thing was distressing to me. It was vindictive and very unpleasant. I can only assume it was a plot to embarrass Prince Charles.' The novelist finally got his gong this May, at a low-key ceremony at the British high commission in Colombo."

Rediff On The NeT: "Paedophile" Arthur C Clarke sparks protests in Lanka

Rediff On The NeT: "Paedophile" Arthur C Clarke sparks protests in Lanka: "'Paedophile' Arthur C Clarke sparks protests in Lanka

Child right activists in Sri Lanka have expressed shock over science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke's confession in a newspaper interview of a life of paedophilia and called for his deportation just around the time Prince Charles was to knight him.

Clarke, 80, widely regarded as a visionary and author of the celebrated 2001: A Space Odyssey and some 80 other books, was quoted as saying in the interview published in London's Sunday Mirror that having sex with children was all right.

''Once they have reached the age of puberty, it is OK... It doesn't do any harm,'' said Clarke, who has lived in Sri Lanka for 40 years.

'I am trying to think of the youngest boy I have ever had because, of course, you can't tell it here. I think most of the damage comes from the fuss made by hysterical parents afterwards. If the kids don't mind, fair enough,'' he was reported to have said in the interview which was conducted at his house."

BBC News | South Asia | Sunday Mirror to hand over Arthur C Clarke tapes

BBC News | South Asia | Sunday Mirror to hand over Arthur C Clarke tapes: "World: South Asia

Sunday Mirror to hand over Arthur C Clarke tapes


A British newspaper, the Sunday Mirror, says it will hand over to the international police organization, Interpol, a recorded interview with the science fiction writer, Arthur C Clarke.

The paper says the taped interview suggests that Mr Clarke is a paedophile.

Mr Clarke has denied allegations of child abuse published by the Sunday Mirror earlier this year.

Earlier, police in Sri Lanka -- where Mr Clarke lives -- said their investigation into the allegation was being hampered by the Sunday Mirror's failure to co-operate with Interpol.

A spokesman for the paper denied this, saying they had previously sent a copy of the recording, but Interpol had apparently not received it.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service"

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat."

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle -- as we did in the OJ trial -- or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change."

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience -- as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time."

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love."

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics

NPR: Transcript of Obama's Speech On Race and Politics: "And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike."

FARK.com: (3475370) Man who taped infamous police encounter files federal civil rights violation case, says he wasn't baiting police with the camera in his car but the police are thankful he had one because they still can't find their dashcam video

FARK.com: (3475370) Man who taped infamous police encounter files federal civil rights violation case, says he wasn't baiting police with the camera in his car but the police are thankful he had one because they still can't find their dashcam video: "Cops are divorced from reality. They live in a vaccuum. They send their kids to the Cop Daycare and their wives and kids only socialize with other cop families. Cops are only friends with other cops. They only attend cop events. The Fraternal Order of Police Myopia.

From this self-inflicted isolation Cops are less human that we are. They experience fewer of the real-life scenarios that create wisdom and foresight.

Real citizens purposely avoid cops and cop families because real citizens realize a person can't be a 'cop' and be a normal human. The two are exclusive of one another."

FARK.com: (3475370) Man who taped infamous police encounter files federal civil rights violation case, says he wasn't baiting police with the camera i

FARK.com: (3475370) Man who taped infamous police encounter files federal civil rights violation case, says he wasn't baiting police with the camera in his car but the police are thankful he had one because they still can't find their dashcam video: "And I'm a 'cop magnet'.

I've got 15 years of driving under my belt, and there was a point for about 6 years, where I got pulled over at least once a month or more. I drove boring sedans, SLOWLY, and never had a single citation (out of 30 people) given to me once that stuck. That's right, I took the cops to basic traffic court and each time the judge threw out the bullshiat speeding, lane change, etc. tickets.

Why?

Because I subpoenaed the dash-mount cams, each time."

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Chemical Plants (Ftrain.com)

Chemical Plants (Ftrain.com): "There was a company that specialized in fire-retardant chemicals, which the bus passed every day on the way to and from school. One afternoon, coming home, I saw a man in a moon suit entirely engulfed in flames, like a sun: the flames rose two feet over his head, and poured from his fingertips. He scorched the dry ground where he walked. He walked slowly, ominously, moving towards a man with a fire extinguisher. The bus turned the corner."

Six Principles for Making New Things

Six Principles for Making New Things: "And yet, mysteriously, Viaweb ended up crushing all its competitors."

Lilly E-Mail Discussed Off-Label Drug Use - New York Times

Lilly E-Mail Discussed Off-Label Drug Use - New York Times: "“The fact we are now talking to child psychs and peds and others about Strattera means that we must seize the opportunity to expand our work with Zyprexa in this same child-adolescent population,” Dr. Lechleiter wrote in the message. He also encouraged Lilly to get data on the use of Zyprexa in treating “disruptive kids” in order to increase the drug’s sales."

Monsters.

Friday, March 14, 2008

#81 Graduate School � Stuff White People Like

#81 Graduate School � Stuff White People Like: "Being white means to engage in a day in, day out struggle to prove that you are smarter than other white people. By the time they reach college, most white people are confronted with the fact that they may not be as smart as they imagined.

In coffee shops, bars, and classes white people will engage in conversations about authors and theorists that go nowhere as both parties start rattling off progressively more obscure people until eventually one side recognizes one and claims a victory. By the time they graduate (or a year or two afterwards), white people realize that they will need an edge to succeed in the cut-throat world of modern white society.

That edge is graduate school."

Big O (Ftrain.com)

Big O (Ftrain.com): "What scientists saved programmers squander. It must be disappointing to spend your college years cultivating a ponytail and a sense of superiority, discovering the inherent recursive nature of everything, only to wander into a cubicle farm where programmers like myself sit like veal calves, fattened on the candy-colored syntax served up by our platform IDEs, iteratively wasting what you've learned to prize. It must sting to see us burn tons of coal for a single cup of coffee. It stings me in a different way, because I've started to run into programming problems at work that can't be solved just by burning more coal. I've been moving mustard seeds of data with mountain-sized frameworks, and have hit limits personal and processorial. This must be why the puzzle calls to me."

A Web Geek Takes Off His Mask - New York Times

A Web Geek Takes Off His Mask - New York Times: "Trains are a recurring motif for Mr. Ford - a towering, big-bellied, relentlessly polite man with a recent history of mainlining Diet Coke and Marlboros. Every few minutes, from the windows behind the computer table squeezed into a corner of his room, the F train, elevated high above the neighborhood, can be seen cutting a diagonal path toward the Gowanus and Coney Island.

It inspired the name of Mr. Ford's personal Web site, Ftrain.com, the font from which everything else, he says - jobs, friends, the book - has sprung.

Since 1997, Mr. Ford has honed his prose at Ftrain, experimenting with narrative architecture and programming derring-do, and spinning random thoughts or diarylike yarns about the life of Paul Ford - reared in West Chester, Pa., son of an English professor and a professional puppeteer, educated at Alfred University, 80 miles south of Rochester, a school best known for ceramic engineering."

Thursday, March 13, 2008

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star - New York Times

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star - New York Times: "Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube’s greatest hits. He is part of a new generation of academic stars who hold forth in cyberspace on their college Web sites and even, without charge, on iTunes U, which went up in May on Apple’s iTunes Store."

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Enemy Withi, by Gore Vidal, 10/27/02

The Enemy Withi, by Gore Vidal, 10/27/02: "`Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation of this magnitude. When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaeda as if it were Nazi Germany or the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaeda has been penetrated by US intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication.'"

The Enemy Withi, by Gore Vidal, 10/27/02

The Enemy Withi, by Gore Vidal, 10/27/02: "I don't think that Goff is being unduly picky when he wonders who and what kept the Air Force from following its normal procedure instead of waiting an hour and 20 minutes until the damage was done and only then launching the fighters. Obviously, somebody had ordered the Air Force to make no move to intercept those hijackings until . . . what?"

FARK.com: (3460932) Obama wins a primary in some other unimportant state

FARK.com: (3460932) Obama wins a primary in some other unimportant state: "Weaver95: I wonder what Hillary will say about this loss?

Think of the stupidest, most debasing comment that could be made that would insult all the people who voted and the entire Democratic Party. Then say it in a whining voice."

Monday, March 10, 2008

Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax

Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax: "In 1973, Gygax formed a company called Tactical Studies Rules with childhood buddy Kaye. They didn't ask Arneson to join. 'Dave was never considered as a partner,' Gygax says.'We didn't figure he was the kind of the guy who would be too good at running a business.'

Arneson agrees. 'Gary was willing to go and make the pitches,' he says. 'I was having fun.'"

Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax

Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax: "It's a weekday morning in the early 1950s. You can choose to go to school and max out your grade point average, or you can play hooky and go explore the sepulchral system of tunnels underneath the old Oak Hill Sanitarium, an abandoned insane asylum near the lake. What do you want to do?

Like most kids, Gygax wanted to be the hero of his own life. 'There's a call to adventure,' he says. 'It's something in the inner psyche of humanity, particularly males.'

He was very bright, but tunnel-crawling held a lot more appeal than grinding away in the classroom. 'I hated school, didn't like the discipline,' he says. He dropped out in his junior year."

Geek of the Week # 131: clearclaw (J C Lawrence) | BoardGameGeek Forums

Geek of the Week # 131: clearclaw (J C Lawrence) | BoardGameGeek Forums: "TransAmerica isn't terrible.

An interesting variant for TransAmerica is to draft cities Citadels-style. It works surprisingly well."

Chuck Norris the only WMD in Iraq, say U.S. troops - Yahoo! News

Chuck Norris the only WMD in Iraq, say U.S. troops - Yahoo! News: "Truthfully, I didn't know who he was. I asked the Americans, and they said he was a great fighter, and that's why they named me after him. They showed me a video, and it's true, he's a great fighter' said police trainer Mohammed Rasheed.

With his handle-bar moustache, Rasheed has a vague resemblance to Norris."

Sunday, March 09, 2008

This message is from a Virgin Mobile user. Enjoy.
_____________________________________________________________


pic030208_3.jpg

Friday, March 07, 2008

Colombia: Rebel killed by his security - Yahoo! News

Colombia: Rebel killed by his security - Yahoo! News: "Thursday night, he said, a guerrilla known as Rojas came to the troops with Rios' severed right hand, laptop computer and ID, saying he had killed his boss three days earlier.

It was unclear what motivated the killing, but Santos said it was to 'relieve the military pressure' because the rebels were 'surrounded, without supplies and without communication.'"

Raising Obama: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

Raising Obama: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com: "“After I was elected president, in 2003, he came to see me, a couple months later,” Jones recalled, relishing the tale. “And he said to me, he said, ‘You’re the senate president now, and with that, you have a lot of pow-er.’ ” Jones stretched out the word, as if savoring the pleasure of it, and his voice became very quiet as he continued: “And I told Barack, ‘You think I got a lot of pow-er now?,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, you got a lot of pow-er.’ And I said, ‘What kind of pow-er do I have?’ He said, ‘You have the pow-er to make a United States sen-a-tor!’ ” Jones let out a soft, smoky laugh. “I said to Barack, I said, ‘That sounds good!’ I said, ‘I haven’t even thought of that.’ I said, ‘Do you have someone in mind you think I could make?,’ and he said, ‘Yeah. Me.’ ”"

Beekeepers get stung by hive heists as California nut trees bloom

Beekeepers get stung by hive heists as California nut trees bloom

Bee-nappers!

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Army hero's leg torn off on sled run | Toboggan crash | St Moritz | Captain Bernie Bambury | The Sun |HomePage|News

Army hero's leg torn off on sled run | Toboggan crash | St Moritz | Captain Bernie Bambury | The Sun |HomePage|News: "Bernie, based at Bulford, Wilts, tackled the fearsome Cresta Run — nearly a mile of solid ice — at an Army tobogganing event in January. His right foot hit a marker post and the leg, severed below the knee, was recovered hundreds of yards up the course after he crossed the finish."