Intellectual Poison

Did you know that Alaska is the rape capital of the United States? I didn't until I read a bit about Sarah Palin charging rape victims for the test kits (which she denies doing and calls it crazy but public records show she did it and knew about it). Alaska has been the #1 rape capital for at least the last three years and likely more. In 2007 it had the 5th highest rate of aggravated assault and 9th for violent crimes.

Who knew Alaska was such a haven for violence and sexual assault? I know I didn't.

Want to know more? Here, go have a read.

California, for those who are interested, ranks 41st in 2007 for rape but is big on vehicle theft (#4) and robbery (#6). And a rather shocking 18th in 2007 for murder, maybe they are counting Oakland as its own universe?

Alaska's crime index puts it at #20 nationally compared to California's crime index rating of #27.

Labels: alaska, decency, rape, statistics

After Taking Credit For Bailout Bill, Is McCain Campaign Willing To Share Responsibility For Its Failure?

His supporters have been breathlessly jabbering about how key McCain has been in the process. He didn't deliver the Republican votes he'd been counted on to deliver (i.e. the reason he was "important" to the effort) and really he came off like an idiot the entire time between his presence being required to being able to do it on the phone to saying he isn't able to "phone it in" his campaign has bungled and continues to bungle his part and assistance in getting the bailout bill passed.

If he's unable to unite his own party then how could he possibly be expected to unite the country?

So with the end of the regular season of baseball and football ramping up and hockey just around the corner, I thought it was high time for a little fantasy sports breakdown.

Of the three fantasy baseball teams I played this season, I came in 2nd, 2nd and 1st respectively. Rick destroyed everyone in one league and I squeaked into the running for league #2 only to get annihilated 10-0 in the final. But in my last league, I was able to barely get through the semi's by an odd tie breaker and then eke out a victory by just a couple of points to take the season win.

Not too bad on the fantasy baseball front at all.

Fantasy football got off to a rough start beginning with the auto-draft "scoring" me Matt Hasselback (yes, the one married to the big foreheaded GOP parrot annoyance on The View, Elizabeth) of the sucktastic Seahawks and Stephen Jackson of the pathetically awful Rams. Two games into the season and I was still looking for my first W.

A squeaker got me on the board and then I had Brett Favre playing this week when he threw for a record 6 touchdowns against the Cards. Not a bad play at all. This week I have brought the heaviest smackdown of the season and am evening my record to 2-2.

I am also positioned for a local football pool win tonight if Big Ben and the Steelers can put together a win over the Ravens which will not be easy. But it is doable and that's what matters.

And last, the fantasy hockey league needs more teams. Want to play? (I will freely note that I pretty well suck at Fantasy Hockey and am just a body to skate over by some fanatical Shark fan friends). If you want in then leave a comment with your email address and I'll get an invite out to you.

Did you notice a lack of fantasy basketball news? That's because I find basketball to be, overall, a boring ass piss poor sport that lauds flopping, pimpsmanship and generalized douchebaggery from players, owners and fans alike.

Oh and one word to my Mets fan pal, John. Dude! Duuuuuuuude! And, last word to the long suffering gentlemen of the Mint 400, I hope this is your year and I further hope the Cubs get to pound the Dodgers down and out. Because I am all about cheering for whoever is playing against the Dodgers and the Yankees. Plus, Chicago's a great sports town and deserves to finally move past Steve Bartman (who I still think is wrongly blamed).

Also, I didn't take Washington yesterday but I love that they beat the Cowboys! Love it, love it, love it! And not just because Tony Romo sold his soul to Jessica "Toot Toot" Simpson.

Besides, any post season without the frickin' Yankees is a post season I can enjoy! Go Steelers!

Labels: baseball, fantasy football, fantasy sports, hockey, sports

I think there's something broken about the Speed.io testing site. I just ran it from behind my district firewall and got superb results, here, see for yourself. If 25K down and nearly 15K up is average then my connection at home is pathetic.

Just for fun it would be a good reminder of how far we've come to throttle a connection all the way down to 56k dial up speeds again. But it would only be fun if you could just as easily go from that skinny little straw pipe and go right back to the flippin' storm drain pipe, maybe a dial or scroll wheel to demo just how insanely fast 25K is (that's 25,000 kpbs compared to 56 kpbs or roughly 446 times as fast).

And we're not even the world leader in consumer internet speeds. Nope, it seems that it is not unusual for Japanese apartment buildings to have their own fiber connection which can deliver 100K speeds without even breaking a sweat. What can you do with 100,000 kpbs? Stream porn from five sites at once while downloading HD movies and uploading live streaming video from all four corners of your apartment. And you'd still have plenty of bandwidth leftover to send an email to mom letting her know how much you love her. Isn't technology grand?

Labels: bandwidth, speed

I'm finding that the more I refer to it as a wiener dog, the less annoyed I am about the whole thing. The cut to the chase is that we went to a birthday party and a wiener dog bit me, bit me good really. Got a good chunk taken out of my right hand near my thumb.

But up until that moment, we'd been having a good time at kid's birthday party up in the hills. The main attraction was an inflatable water slide that was usable by all but the smallest of the kids there.

And they used the heck out of it, it was complete pandemonium when it first went into use. Lots of fun and chaos and no smacked heads at all, which was astonishing to me and some of the other parents. But things settled down fairly quickly and really the slide kept a whole bunch of kids happily occupied for a good while.

When it came time to tear into the pinata (a rather large Hello Kitty model), there were just four kids left on the water slide, my two boys, an older girl and a same age as Sully boy. Despite repeated mentions of a pending candy storm, none of the kids were ready to stop sliding yet.

Grady ended up getting out just a minute or two before before the pinata was split open and the candy fell. His candy gathering game has improved markedly and he certainly got his share of sugary loot. Sully did not but there were enough adult allies to put together a bag for him too.

And yes, once the candy was rolling, the slide was forgotten.

It was during the candy munching period that the little dachshund wiener dog got very upset at being tied up and found a tasty hand to lash out on. And the only positive in it is that the dog bit me and not Sullivan who was sitting closer and had the advantage of being lightly coated in chocolate.

But I got to be the lucky one and get tagged. It isn't a deep bite but it is a pretty good one, leaving a decent flap of skin loose. It also put a pretty immediate damper on the party and made getting home a little bit of a challenge.

Now its a little more than a day later and it looks alot better than it did yesterday and no signs of infection though I did get permission to chop off the little dog's head if I needed to.

I don't think it'll come to that but I also don't think I'm going to be riding any bikes anytime soon.

Labels: bite, dog, party

Jack Thompson, that lone vigilante battling the evil forces of criminal training activities posing as videogames, has been disbarred from practicing law in the state of Florida. I'm betting the bogus lawsuits, lies, generally making a nuisance of himself and his completely debunked arguments had something to do with it.

I'm sorry for taking delight in another's bad news but Jack Thompson is a douchebag and deserves every bit of judicial smackdown he's got coming his way.

BTW, Schadenfreude is the process of taking pleasure at another person's misery (deserved or not).

Labels: schadenfreude, smackdown

Yes, this is racing all over the internets at, well, internets speed. But its pretty funny in a scary kind of way because I'd guess the call really did go down something like this.

Have a listen to McCain's Voicemail to Palin Leaked to Press and have a laugh before you start cringing because these idiots are still in the race.

Labels: politics, satire

Run while you ride on the elliptiGO bike which sounds like a kind of neat idea until you see it. Then it looks like an ungainly monstrosity that should have been left on the drawing board.

If I wanted to go running, I'd go running. If I want to ride a bike, I'll ride a bike. This bastard crossing of the two makes little sense to me and I highly doubt there's much of a market for them.

Its an interesting looking contraption, to be sure, but I just don't see that many runners who would want one nor very many bikers who would want to run instead of pedal either.

[Ed. Note: I'd originally intended on posting this directly to NorCal Bikers but accidentally sent it here and decided to double post it in both places because I can do that.]

Labels: contraption

My post about bacon floss a couple of months ago got me to thinking about all the things that bacon improves. Rather than that impressive list of stuff, I thought it would quicker to list those things that bacon does not improve.

1. Yogurt
2. Ice cream
3. Twinkies - like bacon, Twinkies are a perfect food all by themselves.
4. Coffee - bacon and eggs with coffee is a classic but bacon IN coffee is a bad idea.
5. Jello - I can't verify this but its a good hunch that bacon and jello are not compatible tastes or textures.
6. Orange juice
7. Chocolate cake
8. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
9. Cherry pie
10. Cheesecake

Labels: bacon

Will John McCain be a no-show for the first of the presidential debates? I expect he will end up showing up, with a flourish and some dropped hints about how much more he cares about the crisis than his opponent.

McCain has already admitted that he has little understanding of economics and yet now we're supposed to believe that he's essential to hammering out a solution?

There are people calling John McCain a hero for suspending his campaign to address this crisis but he's not a hero, he's a distraction without any relevant input trying to duck the reality of the campaign trail. The debates are an extremely important part of our election process and he wants to deny the American people the opportunity to see him in action. Why? Because he's smart enough to know that the GOP can't compete on the issues, that Obama is a substantially better speaker and that he's a grumpy old out of touch fuddy-duddy.

The McCain/Palin ticket has lost its luster and looks like the crap wagon it really is, a old grump with a questionable medical history and an idiot false-sound-bite-spouting beauty queen with a deeply troubling belief system.

If McCain does skip the debate, I hope Obama goes ahead with it and uses it as a platform to discuss just how he plans on putting America back on the right path to prosperity and dignity.

Yes, it plays well with his core to show what a stand up guy he is, but the reality is that McCain doesn't want to debate Obama and he'll use whatever shield he can, even if he has absolutely no particular expertise in the crisis he's suspended his campaign to deal with.

Labels: politics

PETA asks Ben & Jerry's to use breast milk instead of cow's milk. No, they aren't joking but they are a joke.

In a bold move intended to delay the inevitable defrocking of Sarah Palin, the McCain campaign has asked to delay the election campaign because of the economic crisis. This comes fast on the heels of McCain declaring the economy is sound. I guess he must have gotten to the chapter in Greenspan's book where he discusses major financial institutional failure and the repercussions something like that might have.

There is a chance that McCain is genuinely worried about this crisis, no, not on a personal level, he's still rich as sin. But there's also a chance I might fart a living canary, not much of one but there's a chance.

A delay would give Sarah Palin another couple of days to cram for her foreign policy parrot act. What? You didn't think she was actually learning anything, did you? She's basically prepping for an acting role and working hard to memorize her lines as best she can.

The numbers are sliding off of McCain and he's grasping at straws to try and regain some of that juice that announcing Sarah Palin gave his limp and sagging campaign. The only thing is that she's provided almost nothing of substance and came with a closet stuffed full of skeletons and idiotic actions and statements.

The more America learns about Sarah Palin, the less electable she and Grumpa appear. And that's just fine by me.

McCain wants to cancel debates because he doesn't want to be exposed for having no discernable differences between his policies and those of George W. Bush, the same policies that have led this nation into the economic abyss. Of course, he wants to cancel or delay the debates, nobody likes being exposed for being nothing but the same as we've already had, especially given the public and ugly damage those policies have wrought.

Labels: economy, politics

My tweets today have been mostly centered on my stupidity at resetting my password to upload blog posts and content here. Yes, I did it all on my own and have no one to blame except my hosting provider's limp support system.

Granted, once I got in touch with support, they hammered out the solution pretty quickly and that's a plus.

However, the linked support pages from within my signed in account pages were garbage. And that's pretty ridiculous when they can't keep URLs up to date. The lack of alternate means of contact is more annoying than ridiculous since I wouldn't want to be contacting them unless I had a problem and that means I'm already annoyed.

But still, once the process got kicked into gear, it went quickly and I now I can both access my blog again, I can also even start updating IP Politik, my politics side blog, to start using again to help keep the political nonsense off the main blog to some degree or another.

I guess I'm just having one of those "Meh" days where you'd just as soon be doing anything else than what you are doing. I'd rather be sleeping or riding my bike and I know I won't get to do either for at least a few more hours and it won't be riding.

I think one of the problems is that I have too many accounts, too many logins and passwords to keep straight and not enough time to get things into an organized place enough to get on top of it all. Plus I've got projects languishing on back burners all over the place. Projects that I don't want to languish anymore, I want them boiling and throwing off hot nuggets of revenue!

Anyway, I'm back at speed again, will start posting political posts to IP Politik (with a short link here, I'm sure) and am also looking to migrate WIPE (Wal-Mart is Pure Evil) to its own custom domain to stop the cross-pollinated RSS feed. There is always, always work to be done.

Labels: hosting, tech support

Techdirt: eBay Moves Closer To Forcing Users To Use PayPal rather than an open payment system. Forcing users to use PayPal will discourage even more people from using eBay. Seems like a kind of stupid move to me.

I rarely use eBay these days because of their ever-increasing fees and hassles. This move will marginalize them all the more.

Customers don't want to be forced to do things a certain way, especially if they've been able to do it that way before. Just like my My Yahoo! home page was upgraded and improved so much I just stopped using it altogether. It was fine, annoying but fine, when they had notices to give it a try. I tried the upgraded pages and hated them instantly. When my regular page was forced into the new system, I cleared off all the content and abandoned it.

eBay seems to be taking a page from the same playbook. Make your business less open, make using it more annoying (can you say double fees?) and you too can watch your market share diminish even more rapidly than if you'd done nothing at all.

Sometimes an improvement means doing nothing at all just as sometimes the best thing to do is to not do anything at all.

Labels: bad business, ebay

Like everyone else that has an iPhone, I spend an inordinate amount of time fondling my little glowing marvel.

And downloading apps from the App Store. Many are pretty useless but some are noteworthy. Here's a quick rundown. Links will be added once I can verify that the link to app html code actually works (can't check it from behind the firewall).

iSlots - just got it, played for five minutes, will delete shortly, repetitive and boring though pretty nice looking interface.
MotoChaser - bought (yes, bought) a couple of weeks ago, has become my go-to demo game of how awesome the iPhone is, good fun but hard to control.
Motion X Poker - also a bought, excellent dice game making good use of the accelerometer. Geeky enough to allow dice collecting.
Remote - I don't use it enough but should because it is so flipping cool. Need to do it with the projector in the computer lab.
Twitterfon and Twitterific - two twitter clients because one is faster but one has a camera function that is really handy.
Pandora - instant internet radio, got a connection? you've got a radio station, really nice.
Audi A4 Driving Challenge - awful game, terrible controls, bad idea and deleted almost instantly.
Sportacular - very nice and easy way to stay on top of the major sports. Definitely a keeper.
Light - a basic flashlight that works extremely well and has some additional color settings that are of zero use to me (unless you count utility as being able to induce an epileptic seizure).
Bubbles - simple, cute and will distract/occupy my kids for a couple of minutes when necessary.
PangeaVR - my back up demo app of how cool the iPhone is. Being able to look around at a panorama of a room is really very, very cool.
Earthscape - simply too cool to not show off. The top down view is useful but its the horizon view that is really neat.
iWant - a graphics based location app to find you gas, food, clothes, drug stores and more. Very cool and would be indispensable if I were a road warrior salesbot. It could use a Wifi hot spot button too though.

That's a decent start but isn't comprehensive. Got an iPhone? What are you loving and hating on it these days?

Labels: applications, iphone

Manorisms - pretending to be like a lord, laird or other large land owner with affected speech and hoity-toity snobbishness towards those who don't happen to live in a McMansion.

As always, all new words get cross-posted to the Fictionarium.

Labels: nwotd

The first rule of the Diaz brothers, Nick and Nate, is: You do not fucking mess with the Diaz brothers unless you are prepared for an absolute all-out war. That's Nate on the left and Nick on the right.

Nick Diaz is a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu and Nate, his "little" brother, is a brown belt. Nick fights in Elite while Nate is a rising star in the UFC.

They're from Stockton, California and they are not guys you want pissed off at you. And you damned well better not talk shit about them and then duck fights against them when they are offered or become available.

Why do I like watching the Diaz brothers fight? Because they are always working, always punching you, always looking for an armbar, triangle, guillotine or one of the more exotic submissions. They fight smart but they also fight with alot of heart and attitude. Plus Nate has a bit of showupmanship (that is, he's a showman who'll show you up if you're the fighter he just beat) that isn't so much a smackdown as it is entertaining).

Knowing one of the Diaz brothers is on the card almost guarantees a quality fight to watch. I'm glad they're not my neighbors and I for damned sure wouldn't want them pissed off at me but I always look forward to watching them get into the octagon and try bring an ass-whooping down on someone.

Labels: fued, mma, UFC

Imagine that you are in a public bathroom somewhere, there is only enough toilet paper to wipe off the seat before you sit OR to wipe your ass after you've gone.

What do you do?

Labels: dilemma

My dislike and distaste in using shitware from Microsoft should be pretty well established by now (I'd provide links to previous rants but I'm unable to read my own blog from behind the firewall because of my potty mouthed rants).

Anyway, we've been having issues with an email server upgrade over the weekend that's broken most Entourage settings and left a large number of administrators having to resort to using the web-based interface. Which was a decent workaround but people don't really like having to learn a new process when the old one was working well for them.

So I've spent a good (or bad, depending on your point of view) portion of this week tracking down and fixing these stupid problems.

In the course of fixing the settings, I've had to install the four or five "critical" updates that Microsoft's annoying Auto-Update decrees must be done. That's fine but we're talking 180 meg plus files and they have to be updated individually which means baby sitting a machine for an hour or more at a time.

Also, when it comes time to select a hard drive to install the update on, it looks for other drives for up to a few minutes. This is a laptop without external drives attached and yet you have to sit there and wait and wait and wait for the stupid program to get its head out of its ass and get moving.

But, in an incredibly stupid move, even for the dumbfucks in Redmond, someone thought it was a good idea to make a pop under warning that stalls the update install. Think about that for a moment. The warning that stops the whole stupid process isn't visible and there's no way to know its there aside from dumb luck or boredom and you start playing around with the windows.

My disgust for the bloated shitware from Microsoft just got kicked up another three or four notches. And it already got pushed up more after moving from Office 2004 to 2008. No improvements to the applications and several processes have had to get adjusted to do what was pretty straightforward in 2004. Updating should be an improvement and not just to Microsoft's (fat) bottom line.

Labels: crapware, microsoft

Today's new word is brought to you by the train wreck that is the Straight Talk Express in selecting someone as poorly qualified and possessed of extremist religious beliefs along with investigations of abuses of power and ironic personal events to counter public policy beliefs (hard to say abstinence sex-ed works when your own teenage daughter is expecting, eh?)

Scarachter - (scare-achter) someone who's character becomes more and more frightening and disturbing the more you learn about them. See Sarah Palin.

As always, this and all my other fresh and minty new words are cross-posted over at the Fictionarium. Stop by, have a read and a laugh (or in this case, a shudder).

Labels: nwotd

I've just received an actual tape of the McCain campaign's call to meet/investigate Sarah Palin before offering her the vice presidency. This is, from all reports, the sum total of their contact before bringing her on board the Double Talk Express.

"Hi, is this Governor Palin?"

"You betcha! I wear lipstick and like earmarks unless you don't like earmarks and then I'll not like them again but only because you don't like them too. Oh and guns, I loooooove guns and shooting animals from airplanes in the air!"

"Heaven help me, your voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard fed through one of those roll & rock amplifiers the kids are so into. I understand you don't believe in global warming, evolution or the reality that Iraq is a colossal fucking mess that we're going to have a nightmare getting out of. How'd you like to be my vice president?"
Unintelligible squealing, hysterical guffaws and some gasps later, "That was a really funny joke, sir."

"No joke, your nasally voice combined with your extremist religious beliefs are just the smokescreen we need right now. The Democrats will shit themselves when I announce you, it'll be great and we can ride a wave of religious nuttery straight into the Oval Office."

"Oval Office?"

"Where the president works in the White House?" said the jowly old senior adulterer from Arizona.

"Oh, I thought you were referring to the toilet, hahaha," she laughed loudly, ironically like a braying donkey.

John McCain held the telephone at arm's length and grimaced.

"Before we go on, you don't have any skeletons in your closet I should know about? No ironic personal affairs that contradict your public statements or abuses of power? Say, how are you on foreign policy?"

"I've been to Canada and Mexico, how's that work? Oh wait, I can see Russia from my desk. And no, I'm an absolute saint, just ask any Alaskan, except those traitorous bastards who had the nerve disagree with me on anything, ever," replied the perky bespectacled zealot.

"You'll be perfect, the Democrats are going to have a nightmare figuring you out and reacting and the feminists are going to shit themselves. Good to have you aboard the Straight Talk Express," said McGrimace.

"Um, sir, do I have to be honest and forthright and truthful on the Straight Talk Express?"

"Oh, hell no, its a GOP thing, we name things the opposite of what they really are. Do
No Child Left Behind and the Patriot Act ring a bell? We like to name things so that the knuckleheads will think they're good when they're just the same old disgusting doublespeak the GOP's come to be known for," he answered without even a hint of shame.

"Thank goodness for that, sir, because I can't seem to tell the truth no matter how hard I try. And that was a lie too, I hope nobody starts counting them," she answered.

They exchanged a few more pleasantries, talked about shooting animals from planes and helicopters for fun, about how pro-choice is pro-sin and whether or not creationism should be taught alongside of or just replace evolution entirely in our schools.

The above is totally and absolutely true to the best of my knowledge and I'd swear on a stack of state emails printed out from Governor Palin's Yahoo! account to that end. Or not. Actually, yeah, probably not.

Image used with permission from the Gallery of the Absurd because 14 rocks. Go read and enjoy her entire blog and click her advertisements and leave her comments about how awesome she is.

Labels: more politics, satire, smokescreen, vetting

Some days I'm just overflowing with good ideas. Yesterday I came up with a couple in the midst of some tricky tech repairs.

My latest idea for a small company is kind of gross but would be damned funny in action. The gist of it is to capture my dog's rather astonishingly awful flatulence in a ziplock baggy and mail it to someone you don't like. They get the package, open it and find a bag with nothing in it but when they open it, they get a face full of utterly nauseating canine ass gas.

How could that not be a winner?

Heck, I might just send a few gas bags out for fun. Operators are standing by to take your order. Who would you send a bag full of dog farts too?

Why yes, this is an odd post to come right after one about the presidential debates but that's just how I roll!

Labels: business idea, dog fart

The debates are coming, the debates are coming. And with them, I fully expect the McCain/Palin ticket to start to crater badly.

United States presidential election debates, 2008 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
* Friday, September 26, 2008 at the University of Mississippi's Gertrude C. Ford Center in Oxford, Mississippi. This debate will focus on foreign policy and national security.
* Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at Belmont University's Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee. This debate will have a town-hall meeting format.
* Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at Hofstra University's Hofstra Arena in Hempstead, New York. This debate will focus on domestic and economic policy.

One vice-presidential debate:
* Thursday, October 2, 2008 at Washington University in St. Louis' Field House Gymnasium in St. Louis, Missouri. The vice presidential debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics.

When I was younger and still had no way (well, no legal way) to get into bars, my friends and I would party like rock stars at whoever's house we could. And if there was no house to go to, we'd party at a few choice spots we had in the woods, some with cabins, some with teepees and some just open clearings with a firepit.

And, because just sitting around with your boys drinking made little sense to us, we'd play drinking games. Because we were teenage boys, the games tended toward the ability to get shitfaced with ease.

The best/worst game we played was called Suicide and involved a deck of cards and the kindness of your neighbor. Or maybe it just involved not caring how drunk you got. The game worked like this. The dealer would deal you a card and the person to your right or left would count that number while you drank. The slower the counting, the more alcohol rushed down your gullet. The more cruel of my friends could take a 2 and turn it into an entire beer slammed.

But the fun part about the game was when the direction of the person counting reversed itself and you got to count out for your pal who'd been counting you. Which is to say, it was either payback time or tit-for-tat time. Or, as that same cruel friend used to do, he didn't care, he just wanted you or the person on the other side of him as drunk as possible as soon as possible.

The better to write on them with magic markers or otherwise mess with them in a passed out state, of course. Did I mention my friends and I were mildly cruel to each other in the pursuit of fun? Yeah.

Another fun game that's known to anyone who went to college is quarters. Basically, you bounce a quarter into a glass and then make someone drink as a result. Good players could keep bouncing that quarter in many times in a row. And our quarters had an extra element, the creation of rules for successive scores. Three times in and you get to make a rule. My favorite rule of all time required the drinker to say to the person "giving" them the drink "You're not my pal" which leads to all manner of silly rules. Things like: You must drink with your left hand but put your cup back down with your right, No proper names, No saying the word "Drink", five in a row equals a social (everyone drinks), etc.

As you can imagine, the rules get sillier and sillier the drunker we got.

Labels: drinking, games

This has been forwarded through my family (thanks Uncle Doug!) and is a very cool idea. Tomorrow night at 9:50, turn off your lights for ten minutes. If enough of us do it, we can make an amazing impact, not only in energy conservation but in uniting the world under one cause, even if only for ten minutes.

On Wendesday, September 17, 2008, I invite people around the world to turn off their lights for ten minutes – from 9:50pm to 10:00pm in their local time zone.

APAGÓN MUNDIAL EL 17 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2008

ESTE APAGÓN SERÁ DE 21:50 A 22:00, A LA MISMA HORA LOCAL DE CADA PAÍS EN TODO EL MUNDO.

Ingles:
Darkness world: On September 17, 2008 from 21:50 to 22:00 hours.
Proposes to delete all lights and if possible all electrical appliances, to our planet can 'breathe'.
if the answer is massive, energy saving can be brutal.
Only 10 minutes, and see what happens.
Yes, we are 10 minutes in the dark, we light a candle and simply
Be looking at it, we breathe and our planet.
Remember that the union is strength and the Internet can be very power and can
Even do something big.

Moves the news, if you have friends to live in other countries send to them.

Castellano:
Oscuridad mundial: En Septiembre 17, 2008 desde las 21:50 a las 22:00 horas.
Se propone apagar todas las luces y si es posible todos los aparatos eléctricos, para que nuestro planeta pueda 'respirar'.
Si la respuesta es masiva, la energía que se ahorra puede ser brutal.
Solo 10 minutos y vea que pasa.
Si estamos 10 minutos en la oscuridad, prendamos una vela y simplemente la miramos y nosotros estaremos respirando y nuestro planeta.
Recuerde que la unión hace la fuerza y el Internet puede tener mucho poder y puede ser aun algo más grande.

Pase la noticia, si usted tiene amigos que viven en otros países envíeselo a ellos.

Chino:
黑暗的世界：對2008年9月17日從21時50分至22:00 。
這是建議關掉所有電燈及可能的話，所有電器，使我們的星球可以'呼吸' 。
如果答案是大規模，節能，可殘酷的。
只有10分鐘，並看看會發生什麼情況。
如果我們10分鐘，在黑暗中，成衣蠟燭和簡單的外觀和我們將呼吸和我們的星球。
記得當時的聯盟是實力和在互聯網上可以有很大的權力和，甚至可以更大一些。
通過新聞.

Portugués:
Escuridão mundial: No dia 17 de Setembro de 2008 das 21:50 às 22:00 horas
propõe-se apagar todas as luzes e se possível todos os aparelhos eléctricos, para o nosso planeta poder 'respirar'.
Se a resposta for massiva, a poupança energética pode ser brutal.
Só 10 minutos, para ver o que acontece.
Sim, estaremos 10 minutos às escuras, podemos acender uma vela e simplesmente
ficar a olhar para ela, estaremos a respirar nós e o planeta.
Lembrem-se que a união faz a força e a Internet pode ter muito poder e podemos
mesmo fazer algo em grande.

Passa a notícia, se tiveres amigos a viver noutros países envia-lhes.

Árabe:
ظلام العالم : على 17 سبتمبر 2008 من الساعة 21:50 الى 22:00
ويقترح حذف جميع الانوار واذا امكن جميع الاجهزه الكهرباءيه ، ويمكن لكوكبنا 'تنفس'.

اذا كان الجواب هاءله ، ويمكن الاقتصاد في استهلاك الطاقة وحشية.
خلال 10 دقائق فقط ، ونرى ما سيحصل.
نعم ، نحن على 10 دقائق في الظلام ، ونحن على ضوء شمعة وببساطة
ان النظر اليها ، ونحن نتنفس وكوكبنا.
نتذكر ان الاتحاد هو القوام وشبكة الانترنت يمكن ان تكون بالغة القوة ويمكن
حتى تفعل شيئا كبيرا.
التحركات الاخبار .

Francés:
Darkness monde: Le 17 Septembre 2008 de 21:50 à 22:00 heures
Propose de supprimer toutes les lumières et, si possible, tous les appareils électriques, à notre planète peut 'respirer'.
Si la réponse est massive, les économies d'énergie peuvent être brutales.
Seulement 10 minutes, et de voir ce qui se passe.
Oui, nous sommes 10 minutes dans le noir, on allume une bougie et simplement
Être regarder, que nous respirons et de notre planète.
N'oubliez pas que l'union fait la force et l'Internet peuvent être très électricité et peut

Même faire quelque chose de grand.
Déplace l'actualité.

Griego:
Σκοταδι κοσµο: Στις 17 Σεπ του 2008 απο 21:50 εως 22:00 ωρες
Προτεινει να διαγραψει ολα τα φωτα και αν ειναι δυνατον, ολες τις ηλεκτρικες συσκευες, να πλανητη µας µπορει να «αναπνεει».
Εαν η απαντηση ειναι µαζικη, η εξοικονοµηση ενεργειας µπορει να ειναι κτηνωδης.
Μονο 10 λεπτα, και να δουµε τι συµßαινει.
Ναι, ειµαστε 10 λεπτα στο σκοταδι, θα αναψει ενα κερι και απλα
Να εξεταζουµε, που αναπνεουµε και τον πλανητη µας.
Θυµηθειτε οτι η ενωση ειναι η δυναµη και το Internet µπορει να ειναι πολυ δυναµη και µπορουν να
Ακοµη κανουµε κατι µεγαλο.

Μετακινησεις την ειδηση, αν εχετε φιλους να ζουν σε αλλες χωρες να στειλουν τους και τους.

Alemán:
Darkness Welt: Am 17 September 2008 von 21:50 bis 22:00 Uhr
Schlägt vor, alle Lichter zu löschen und, wenn möglich, alle elektrischen Geräte, die unseren Planeten kann 'atmen'.
Wenn die Antwort ist derb, Energieeinsparung kann brutal.
Nur 10 Minuten, und sehen Sie, was passiert.
Ja, wir sind 10 Minuten im Dunkeln, wir Licht einer Kerze und einfach
Sei es bei der Suche, die wir atmen, und unseres Planeten.
Denken Sie daran, dass die Gewerkschaft ist Stärke und das Internet kann sehr Macht und können
Selbst etwas tun groß.

Verschiebt den Nachrichten.

Ruso:
Ночь на Земле: 17 сентября 2008 года с 21:50 до 22:00 часов отключите все огни, и, по возможности, все электроприборы, чтобы наша планета могла спокойно 'подышать' хоть 10 минут.
В случае массового участия, этот проект приведет к огромному сбередению энергии по всему земному шару. Всего только 10 минут, и вы увидите как важен будет результат.
За эти 10 минут можно просто посидеть в темноте, зажечь свечу и посидеть при ее свете. А за это время наша планета успеет спокойно отдышаться.
Помните, что совместное действие - это мощь, а Интернет - это великая сила, вместе мы можем добиться очень многого.

Сообщи о нас другим!!!

Holandés:
Darkness wereld: Op 17 September 2008 van 21:50 tot 22:00 uur
Stelt voor om alle lichten en zo mogelijk alle elektrische apparaten, om onze planeet kan 'ademen'.
Indien het antwoord is enorm, de energiebesparing kan worden wreder.
Slechts 10 minuten, en zie wat er gebeurt.
Ja, we zijn 10 minuten in het donker, we licht van een kaars en gewoon
Wordt kijken, we inademen en onze planeet.
Vergeet niet dat de unie is kracht en het internet kan zeer macht en kan
Zelfs iets te groot.

Vertrokken het nieuws.

Labels: conservation, energy, world meme

Office Culture: Anti-Theft Lunch Bag Deters Sandwich Thieves
Sometimes a product comes along that is just completely full of awesome. This is one of those products. The only way this gets better is if you actually spray some edible goo that looks like mold directly on the sandwich.

Either way, people who shark other people's lunches in an office need to be taken out back and have their nuts stapled to a pit bull.

Labels: awesome, clever, revenge

Rove: McCain went "too far" in ads attacking Barack Obama. Like the one saying Obama favored teaching kindergartners sex-ed when the reality is Obama favored teaching them to say no to sexual predators. And the lipstick on a pig ad is complete and utter bullshit (or maybe I should say hogwash?). I enjoyed seeing McCain squirm on that bastion of political discourse, The View, last week.

When Karl Rove, one of the most disingenuous scumbags on the planet, says you've gone too far then its a pretty good bet you left rational reality long, long ago.

This is likely the first time I've ever agreed with Karl Rove about anything. And it'll probably be the last. Rove also thinks Obama's campaign has gone too far but that's to be expected, he's firmly entrenched in the GOP camp (and there's no way I'd ever want his slimy carcass working for the Democrats in any case).

It was also interesting to get an international perspective over the weekend. I spoke with my brother for a while during his stay in Morocco. His impression is that Obama will win fairly handily (not a landslide but not close enough for the Repugs to steal another election). I hope he's right. Amy had a good graphic that helps explain things the other day.

I'm trying not to obsess over this election but I strongly feel that this is an incredibly important moment for our nation and the world. Electing John McCain and Sarah Palin will negatively reverberate around the world for a generation. They are not the right people to return America's dignity and honor, they are the right people to keep pushing the Bush agenda (you know, make the rich richer, make our kids dumber and sicker and keep driving up that national debt).

I strongly believe that Barack Obama is the right man for the job. He's got the intellect, the drive, the networkability and charisma to lead the country out of the darkness that has been the Bush administration.