Blog maintenance in progress … your blog donation dollars at work …
Pardon our dust
Blog maintenance in progress … your blog donation dollars at work ……
Blog maintenance in progress … your blog donation dollars at work …
Month: September 2004
Shocked!
I am absolutely shocked and stunned to find out that some spammers might actually be lying to us! As many as half of the Viagra anti-impotence pills sold on the…
I am absolutely shocked and stunned to find out that some spammers might actually be lying to us!
As many as half of the Viagra anti-impotence pills sold on the Internet could be counterfeit, British scientists said on Tuesday.
They analyzed samples of Viagra sold on the Web and found that some of the little blue pills contained different components or less of the active ingredient than the top-selling drug made by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.
“On our initial estimate, around half of those Viagra samples could be counterfeit,” Dr Nic Wilson, of the University of London, told the British Pharmaceutical Conference.
I mean, if you can’t trust anonymous folks sending you unsolicited e-mail for prescription medicine without a real prescription, who can you trust?
“There is a hole … in your planet …”
Well, actually, an eclipse shadow, from Mir on 11 Aug. 1999. Very, very cool. (via J-Walk)…
Well, actually, an eclipse shadow, from Mir on 11 Aug. 1999. Very, very cool.
(via J-Walk)
My God, what have you done?!
Via Scott, a list of “things I [could] have done,” with those I actually have in bold….
Via Scott, a list of “things I [could] have done,” with those I actually have in bold.
Pledge
“Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas,” it says that the bottom of the page. He’s also not all that great of an historian or researcher….
“Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas,” it says that the bottom of the page. He’s also not all that great of an historian or researcher.
Ironically, the author of the pledge of allegiance might disagree with our commitment to preserving the prerogatives of state and local governments. Francis Bellamy, the author of the pledge, was a self-described socialist who wished to replace the Founders’ constitutional republic with a strong, centralized welfare state. Bellamy wrote the pledge as part of his efforts to ensue that children put their allegiance to the central government before their allegiance to their families, local communities, state governments, and even their creator! In fact, the atheist Bellamy did not include the words “under God” in his original version of the pledge. That phrase was added to the pledge in the 1950s.
Bellamy was, indeed, a socialist, though he was much more an opponent of capitalism than federalism. He was also a Baptist minister whose religious-based political views may have gotten him in trouble with his congregations (referring to Jesus as a socialist, too, for example), but whom nobody seems to have mistaken for an atheist.
Today, most Americans who support the pledge reject Bellamy’s vision and view the pledge as a reaffirmation of their loyalty to the Framers’ vision of a limited, federal republic that recognizes that rights come from the creator, not from the state.
Funny, I don’t recall “and to the limited, federal republic for which it stands” being in the Pledge text. Maybe that’s next year’s Constitutional amendment.
(via Les)
A hundred miles, a hundred miles …
Quack….
Quack. 
Blind leading the blind
This week’s Top5.com Little Fivers — Comics Edition: Back in 1964, Stan Lee and Bill Everett created the Man Without Fear, Matt Murdock, a successful lawyer who also waged battle…
This week’s Top5.com Little Fivers — Comics Edition:
Back in 1964, Stan Lee and Bill Everett created the Man Without Fear, Matt Murdock, a successful lawyer who also waged battle against crime as the blind superhero Daredevil. For the math impaired, that means ol’ hornhead’s been tossing that baton for 40 years. Yikes! So …
The Top 9 Signs Matt Murdock’s Getting a Little Tired of Being Daredevil
9. He was last seen swimming in the Hudson River in an Aquaman outfit.
8. He tells the city that whenever they need him, shine a light in the sky and he’ll come to help as soon as he sees it.
7. “I’m the one with the radar sense — why the hell is that guy called Batman?”
6. He’s sick and tired of the Avengers teaming him up with Vision, just to get an ironic snicker.
5. When encountering a crime, he keeps muttering “Didn’t see it, didn’t happen.”
4. “Foggy, I’ll tell you what — this time I’ll do all the grunt research on the McMurphy case, you go square off with Bullseye in Times Square.”
3. In the morning, he becomes Elektra.
2. Not only did he not object to the casting of Ben Affleck, he actually tracked him down and gave him the costume.
… and the Number 1 Sign Matt Murdock’s Getting a Little Tired of Being Daredevil …
1. He goes from being “The Man Without Fear” to “The Man Who Doesn’t Give a Rat’s Ass.”
via Erik Deckers, Syracuse, IN (#1); Jack Scheer, Falls Church, VA (#2); Eric Wakeford, Niagara Falls, ON (#2, 7, 8); Dave Hill, Centennial, CO (#3, 4); Marc Berard, Central Falls, RI (#5); Arthur Levesque, Laurel, MD (#6); Matt Hurlburt, Stow, OH (#9); Dave Goudsward, Lake Worth, FL (List Moderator).
Steps forward, steps back …
On the PC front … Forward … touched bases with the PC tech working on my machine, trying to replace the drivers on the hard drive to support said drive….
On the PC front …
Forward … touched bases with the PC tech working on my machine, trying to replace the drivers on the hard drive to support said drive.
Back … he reports that the drive is now no longer responding to anything, regardless of the drivers. This is a new drive.
Forward … he’s been in touch with IBM.
Back … IBM says they have no more of the drives, nor do they have any of the substitute parts.
Prognosis: Further back-and-forth with IBM. Restoration of my My Documents directory from backup so that I can function again, probably without inadvertently overwriting anything. 85% likely that eventually I will need to rebuild the system. Again.
And on the home improvement/drywall front:
Forward … Drywaller, after having had his truck die on Monday, scheduled to show up on Friday.
Back … No drywaller shows up on Friday.
Forward … Margie contacts the drywaller’s boss, who is sure the guy is supposed to be there.
Back … Boss man calls back to say the drywaller is evidently no longer working for him.
Forward-plus … Would we like him to come out and begin work on the drywall on Monday (today)? We say yes, and, miracle of miracle, dude actually shows up.
Back-a-little … Job will take three days. But it’s under way!
Prognosis: Job will be completed, save for the painting (and tile) this week.
Meantime, we never heard back from the folks who were quoting replacement french doors for us. Margie did a truckload of calling on Friday, and we got at least one pretty decent quote (albeit for more than Lowes was going to charge us, but then determined they couldn’t do), so we need to call htem and close up that.
And the Paint Police Lady no-showed coming over to approve our paint (and take back her chips), so we need to reschedule her.
A game for Kitten?
She might enjoy Dress Up. Hmmm. (via Uncle Bear)…
She might enjoy Dress Up. Hmmm.
(via Uncle Bear)
Firefox 1.0PR update
I updated to the 1.0 Pre-Release of Firefox last week. A couple of random thoughts: I decided on a fresh profile rather than installing it on top of the old…
I updated to the 1.0 Pre-Release of Firefox last week. A couple of random thoughts:
- I decided on a fresh profile rather than installing it on top of the old system. The FF docs say you can do that, but a couple of other sites recommended against it.
- RoboForm is updated to be able to support FF 1.0PR. Most of the other major extensions I use are, too.
- It was a good opportunity to reload the current versions of just some of the extensions I was using, getting rid of ones that I don’t need or didn’t use.
- The system seems a bit less stable, though. More frequent crashes (not a lot, but any are too many).
- My MT-it bookmarklet no longer works (though it did in 0.9.3). Not sure why. I can’t find anything in Google about it, so it may be something else odd going on with my system, not with FF in general.
When the 1.0PR was released, the FF folks were pushing for a million downloads in the first ten days.
They ended up with two million.
Good job.
All we are saying …
I’m not a big John Lennon fan, which is perhaps why I can appreciate the irony over how folks are reacting to his killer, Mark David Chapman, being up for…
I’m not a big John Lennon fan, which is perhaps why I can appreciate the irony over how folks are reacting to his killer, Mark David Chapman, being up for parole:
But if Chapman is released after 24 years in prison, some Lennon fans have already threatened to take action. News of the parole hearing has spread on the internet and dozens of websites have been filling up with messages from fans around the world, many already promising to take revenge on the man who gunned down Lennon on 8 December 1980 as he arrived at his New York apartment building off Central Park.
‘Chapman should be executed. I would gladly get rid of him myself,’ wrote a fan from Finland on one website. Another fan has already set up an online petition to have Chapman’s parole denied. It is already full of messages that show Chapman’s safety outside jail would be difficult to maintain. ‘If Mark David Chapman is let out of jail, he wouldn’t last a day. There are too many people who want him dead,’ wrote a New York-based female fan.
Which is, I’m sure, just what pacifist-Imagine-Givepeaceachance John would want to see happen in his name. (Heh. “Bigger than Jesus” and possessed of just as blindly and murderously obsessive fans.)
(via J-Walk)
A modest proposal
From Defective Yeti, how to make the presidential debates more interesting. Or, at least, more entertaining….
From Defective Yeti, how to make the presidential debates more interesting. Or, at least, more entertaining.
Favoo
Interesting gallery and info directory for favicons, those little 16-pixel graphics that can be used to ID web sites. It’s amazing what sort of graphic info you can fit into…
Two … hundred … and fifty … minutes …
Specs on the Return of the King Super-Duper Iridium Extended Ultimate Edition (With Bonus Tracks For Her Pleasure) are out. Yes, over four hours of RotK goodness. Add in the…
Specs on the Return of the King Super-Duper Iridium Extended Ultimate Edition (With Bonus Tracks For Her Pleasure) are out.
Yes, over four hours of RotK goodness. Add in the four commentary tracks, and you could spend nearly a full day just watching the movie, let alone the extra discs with extra stuff. The only downside is that the feature is so long, it extends into two discs.
Though there is a passing note made of one particularly appalling “abandoned concept”: “Aragorn Battles Sauron.” Better left abandoned and unmentioned …
Pre-orders start Friday, with the release date on 14 December.
(via Julia)
Shuffling like a zombie through the day
I don’t know if it’s general malaise (I’ve picked up the cough that’s been going around with Katherine and then with Margie), sleep deprivation (I can recall waking up coughing…
I don’t know if it’s general malaise (I’ve picked up the cough that’s been going around with Katherine and then with Margie), sleep deprivation (I can recall waking up coughing a few times last night, though never for long), or a Nyquil hangover, but …
- I woke up 20 minutes late, having not set my alarm last night.
- I started the coffee in the break room without ensuring the pot was smack-dab under the hole, leading to coffee all over the place.
- I almost overflowed my coffee mug under the decanter, even while I watched it.
- I feel — not surprisingly — very muzzy-headed.
And caffeine (see above) does not seem to be helping. Bleah.
A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations, Part II
So after patting myself on the back for dodging a fun-but-relatively-trivial volunteer activity, I got waylayed by being offered a volunteer activity that would be: A tremendous honor, a recognition,…
So after patting myself on the back for dodging a fun-but-relatively-trivial volunteer activity, I got waylayed by being offered a volunteer activity that would be:
- A tremendous honor, a recognition, and an opportunity that could lead to other nifty things.
- Quite the challenge, personally, causing me to stretch in ways I’m not sure I’m good at and I’m not sure I want to try.
- Something that would be of great use to a cause I care for (a “if not me, then whom?” sort of thing, as well as a “I think I could do some real good” sort of thing).
- A massive time sink that could be somewhat eased by dropping some other related activities, but would still be a net increase, I suspect.
I’m inclining at the moment to say no, for a variety of mostly personal reasons, but it would be one of the first challenges of this sort in my life that I’ve actually said no to, and some of the reasons are less worthy than others (my aversity to using the telephone, for example), and I can’t help wondering if I’m just chickening out.
On the other hand, chickening out in this case might be the right thing to do, for the reasons that are more worthy, e.g., the time impact on my family.
[And, yes, that’s about as specific as I can get at the moment.]
After the drought
Ran the first IDC since early August. Took much razzing from all concerned over the interval, which, I suppose, is a good thing (if they didn’t care, that would be…
Ran the first IDC since early August. Took much razzing from all concerned over the interval, which, I suppose, is a good thing (if they didn’t care, that would be worse, right?).
Things went along well, though much slower than I’d expected (as usual). Two sessions, no combat. That, of course, can’t last, either … As usual, the further I delve into actual execution of the module, the more goofiness (strange time gaps, unconsidered factors, lack of critical info) I discover, usually as I’m playing it. Hopefully the gaps aren’t as obvious as they feel. 🙂
The morning after …
One of the nifty things about cleaning up the whole house (or the ground floor at least) for a big dinner party is that when you come down in the…
One of the nifty things about cleaning up the whole house (or the ground floor at least) for a big dinner party is that when you come down in the morning, the house is still soooooooo clean. Uncluttered. All the stuff that’s usually festooned in stacks hither and thither all put away and tidy.
Can’t last, of course, any more than Margie’s incredibly yummy gnocchi can. But I can enjoy both while they do last.
“Giant Robot! Attack the Megalon!”
For Doyce’s “Grimm Therapy” game, my kid, Jason, has a toy robot (Super-Mega-Bot-Z!) who’s also his demon. While the voice I have in mind for the robot is straight from…
For Doyce’s “Grimm Therapy” game, my kid, Jason, has a toy robot (Super-Mega-Bot-Z!) who’s also his demon. While the voice I have in mind for the robot is straight from the awful H-B cartoon Frankenstein Jr. (and, thus, was the inimitable Ted Cassidy), I also have a heavy dollop of Giant Robot in mind, from a favorite Channel 13 Saturday Afternoon Bad SF Movie regular, Voyage into Space (also known, as mentioned below, as Journey into Space or Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot).
That movie, it turns out, is a pastiche of four of the TV series (yes, there was a TV series) episodes, including the first and last. Which explains part (but only part) of its general incoherence and cheesiness. Nonetheless, I loved Giant Robot, his young master Johnny Sokko, who worked with the good super-spy organization Unicorn, fighting the evil Emperor Guillotine from the Planet Gargoyle (not to mention both the sinister deputy Spider and the various Giant Rubber Suited Monsters). Triffic bad Japanese Monster Movie stuff, complete with a heart-twanging ending. Fun.
Some sort of an echo in here …
Our new neighbors across the street and two doors down … just one digit difference in address … are also named “Hill.” I sense impending problems, mail-wise….
Our new neighbors across the street and two doors down … just one digit difference in address … are also named “Hill.”
I sense impending problems, mail-wise.