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Showing posts from June 18, 2006
News/Talk 750 WSB's Chris Krok takes on a taser Why do people do these things?
The Sunlight Foundation has caught Hastert in his hand the cookie jar. Hastert, of course, isn't happy. In fact, he's sent his lawyers after them. Here is the response from, and to, Speaker Hastert's Attorney . Read the whole thing. I hope they stay on him. I think Sunlight is my new favorite group.
SawStop . A lifesaver. My dad needs one of these. He nearly cut his finger off the day before my wedding.
What the hell is wrong with Japanese people?
Mystery Pollster has a fascinating article about Military Social Conservatives . Some very surprising results. The one about gun control initially surprised me but these guys probably think that the average person needs much more instruction and plus, they've seen accidents first hand. At least, that's my guess. Read the whole thing.
54:53 Great save by Keller 54:53 - 75:03 More acting by Ghana. 75:24 Finally one goes our way. The ref overlooks a trip by Olsen. He's going off on a stretcher!? Are you insane!? He deserves a card for that shit. New rule: you go off on a stretcher, you cannot come back in for a minimum of 10 minutes. 78:27 Again with the drama. Anything to run down the clock. (yes I know there is injury time but this is designed to kill US momentum) 80:14 Flagrant, flagrant foul by Mehnsa (sp?) We need a goal right now. 81:00 Horrible Donovan, horrible. He hit the friggin reporters. Italy up 2-0. You can't say they didn't do their part. 82:15 "Landon Donovan has not been a factor in this game" -Balboa Excatly. 85:00 Time is running out. We can't even put the ball on net. Pingpong the actor strikes again. 89:00 Italy wins. 91:00 Shot! Blocked! 93:44 Announcers putting the final nails in the US coffin. 94:25 Another blown opporutnity. Send to Convey and it goes out
OK, rather than a zillion one liner posts (what else is new) I'm going to combine the updates Update: Italy Scores! Go Italy! 27:43 Ghana's goalkeeper is looking for an Emmy for best actor. 28:11 AAAGH! Pingpong scares the crap out of the US team by shooting just wide of the net. Watch those corners Kasey! 30:42 Reyna's absence is noticable. The US team has backed off and Ghana is pressing their advantage. 32:10 Foul for Ghana that Balboa says shouldn't be a card. I'm not so sure. 36:10 Donovan shoots wide. A missed opportunity. 38:38 Beautiful cross by Lewis but nobody there to put it away. Argh! 40:00 Reyna out. Oh boy. 41:14 More acting by Ghana. Cheap bastards. 42:52 GOAL USA! 46:00 BULLSHIT!!!!!! Worst officiating ever! I have no doubt that these refs have it in for the US. So pissed off. Halftime and the crowd roars it's disapproval. Rightly so.
OK, rather than a zillion one liner posts (what else is new) I'm going to combine the updates Update: Italy Scores! Go Italy! 27:43 Ghana's goalkeeper is looking for an Emmy for best actor. 28:11 AAAGH! Pingpong scares the crap out of the US team by shooting just wide of the net. Watch those corners Kasey! 30:42 Reyna's absence is noticable. The US team has backed off and Ghana is pressing their advantage. 32:10 Foul for Ghana that Balboa says shouldn't be a card. I'm not so sure. 36:10 Donovan shoots wide. A missed opportunity. 38:38 Beautiful cross by Lewis but nobody there to put it away. Argh! 40:00 Reyna out. Oh boy. 41:14 More acting by Ghana. Cheap bastards. 42:52 GOAL USA! 46:00 BULLSHIT!!!!!! Worst officiating ever! I have no doubt that these refs have it in for the US. So pissed off. Halftime and the crowd roars it's disapproval. Rightly so.
Update: Disaster. A goal and Claudio Reyna injured. If he can't get back in the game, we're in deep trouble.
Update: Referees seem to have it in for the US. They're passing on fouls that are far rougher than the ones that garnered a yellow card for Eddie Lewis
Update: US off to a strong start. They're pressing hard on offense and playing to win. Update 2: Yellow card for Ghana. Very early for a card. Looks like another game with tight officiating.
WOW! Huge crowd of US supporters. The roar that went up when the US national anthem started was tremendous. Thousands singing as loud as they can. Makes me proud that they have so many supporting them.
WOW! Huge crowd of US supporters. The roar that went up when the US national anthem started was tremendous. Thousands singing as loud as they can. Makes me proud that they have so many supporting them.
GO USA!!! Ok, this is it. Do or die time. The US needs to win big over Ghana today and the two yellow cards against Italy may come back to haunt us. Let's hope not. I'll be liveblogging updates.
Maillardet's Automaton . Fascinating. I'd love to know more about how this works. Imagine what might have been if others had followed on in his footsteps. So much is lost from generation to generation because such geniuses work in isolation. Now with the interweb each isolated genius can share his work and his knowledge and push us further forward.
Now, this is a view . Not bad.
De la Where: Another installment of vote Republican . *Sigh* I like De La Where's blog. They're good guys and respectful of commenters (unlike some people who shall remain nameless). However, they don't understand basic economics. Artificial influence on market mechanisms distort those markets and create more problems than they solve. As this report notes, increasing minimum wage laws increases unemployment. That is not what is intended. The idea is to give poor people more money in their pocket so they can get a leg up. However, these laws actually create more poor people by employing fewer of them. Similarly, any forced wage increases are immediately by a rise in attentant prices. It's a form of inflation and it's counterproductive. If you're going to make it $7.25 that's an annual salary of $15,704. Can you raise a family on that? Not really. How much do you have to make to support a family? Let's assume that we can support ourselves o
New Border Chief: Walls Are Not the Answer . Heavens no! We don't want to secure the borders or anything. Let's change this man's job and see if the result changes. "New Bank President: Vault not the answer". You can't prevent money from being stolen at the teller's window so why bother with a vault? They'll just break into that too. Would you invest in that bank? Let them hold your money?
Southern San Andreas fault waiting to explode . Fearmongering. I've been hearing about "The Big One" since I was child and I'm sure it's been happening since well before then. A serious quake of 8 or more would be very very costly and deadly. To think of it gives me a knot in my stomach. I know the day is coming, I just hope it's a very long way off. I have no doubt that George W. Bush will be blamed for any damage and/or problems after such a disaster.
Cox & Forkum: Valor Blind . Precisely. Sad but true.
Hanging Monastery in China Amazing what ingenuity and to what lenghts people will go to keep out invaders.
Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power . Whoa. Twin 4 story cooling towers? WTF? What kind of computing power can generate that much heat?
Going over the cliff with his flag held high. He knows he's got a target on his chest from the Kos Kidz. His only hope is to appeal to the centrist voters and hope to capture them along with the RINO's. I think he should start packing.
What bias? Hilarious!
Game. Set. Match. A masterfully executed trap. The most adept political move I've heard of in a long time. If only they were this cunning the rest of the time. h/t Emporer Misha
Game. Set. Match. A masterfully executed trap. The most adept political move I've heard of in a long time. If only they were this cunning the rest of the time. h/t Emporer Misha
Game. Set. Match. A masterfully executed trap. The most adept political move I've heard of in a long time. If only they were this cunning the rest of the time. h/t Emporer Misha
FreakStreets.com - recognizing that some city planners lost their damn minds... Initially, I thought this was a joke but I know some of these streets are real. (like Shades of Death road)
Scratch that. THIS GUY is my hero. No, seriously, this guy is awesome.
This guy is my hero.
John Heinke gives Paul Krugman a beatdown . Love it!
Programmable Tattoos . If they actually bring these to market, I'd finally get one. I wanted a tattoo for a while but I couldn't think of anything that I'd want permenantly.
I know, I know. I said I'd keep meta-blogging to a minium but I have to say something. Sully is up in arms about this article . If you read the article there's no indication of when the document in question was produced. Or even if it's used by anyone for anything. I assure you there are endless reams of paper in every organization that stays in the files no matter how outdated. I was part of a merger team that had to define the network topology of the bank we acquired. Some of the stuff they had was over 10 years old. Now imagine what the US Army has in its archives somewhere. Of course, "Army document from 1953 declares homosexuality a 'mental disorder'" isn't really a headline that grabs eyeballs now is it?
Stop reading this post, and go read this one . Absolutely nails it.
By the way, Wikipedia has the best presentation of the 2006 World Cup picture including brackets that neither FIFA nor ESPN could be bothered to come up with. THANK YOU OPEN SOURCE!
Ok. I finally had a chance to watch the Italy v. US world cup game. What a friggin disaster. Simply the worst officiating I've ever seen in professional sports. Marcelo Balboa said it correctly. The man made four correct calls the entire game. 1. The starting whistle 2. Red card against Italy for flagrant elbow McBride's face 3. Offside call negates US goal 4. Ending whistle The US team looked much better than they did against the Czechs. They should have won the Italy game but the red cards proved and insurmountable hill. I have zero doubt the ref had it in for the Americans. Chris Waddle (BBC) said the man should be sent home immediately. If I were Bruce Arena, I'd be lodging a protest (quietly) with FIFA for such poor officiating. This is not sour grapes. I blasted the US team for their piss poor performance against the Czechs. They deserved to lose. The game against Italy saw more cards dealt than a poker game. Additionally, the referee has a shady
The gods are laughing . They're laughing at Al Gore. Scientists are very bad at politics. They trade in fact which is largely unimportant in politics. Politics is about emotion. You rile people up and they vote for you. The agitated populace wants to be lead. The comforatble populace starts to take a closer look at what they're getting for their money. (answer: not much) Read this article. Especially if you think global warming is a fact.
Behind the Scenes at Disney World . I had no idea that they had these tours. I'd love to see how the whole show runs. However, after my last trip to Disney, I'd be hard pressed to go back. Maybe when the kids are older and can appreciate it. Even then, it's a maybe. I went in August when it was roughly 350 degrees in the shade and several million people were there that week. You get the point. If I went back, it would be in October or something.
Documents Support Saddam-Taliban Connection : "Note the Iraqi official says, “We hope that they will win and control,” referring to the Taliban. According to this notebook, Iraq has clearly thrown its support to the Taliban, the epicenter of Islamic Jihad. This is a clear indication that Saddam had no problem working with Jihadists outside of Iraq." Saddam had no links to terror right? I have no doubt we'll see more and more of this as time goes on.
City to crackdown on illegal immigration . Good. Great. Is anyone from the GOP listening to this man? This is what their voters want to hear.
Iraq Official: U.S. Soldiers' Bodies Found . Horrible. Now we know why there wasn't a video. My thoughts and prayers to the soldiers and their families.
Liquid Armor . GO DELAWARE! How cool! This is the stuff of science fiction made real. Imagine the differnce this will make for soldiers if they can reduce their weighload so dramatically and have the mobility and flexibility of normal clothing.
Great. Just great. My alma mater is in the news and for what? Did we win the lax championship? Stop laughing. For appointing a new president? No. For academic excellence? No. Loyola is in the news because one of her graduates is a murderer . Worse yet, this isn't an accident or even a crime of passion. No, our esteemed Jesuit institution has it's own one memeber terror cell. Why did he kill his victim? 'He was the first and closest target' . Fabulous. Was he a poor opressed kid from some desert backwater? No. He lived in one of the most exclusive, tawny neighborhoods in Marlyand. (Wasn't there something about a link between terrorism and poverty?) The story is pretty thin on details. It looks like the kid just snapped and shot somebody. I hope they stay on this story as details emerge.
It pains us to say so but We can't contradict IDF findings says HRW. Notice how equivocating the retraction is. They were positive last week that the IDF was, of course, shelling the Palestinian civilians on the beach. After all, this is the IDF we're talking about. [/sarcasm]
Puzzlefloor . So cool!
Ask the pilot is a feature in Salon.com that shows the other side of the equation when it comes to profiling on airplanes. Certainly it is overly simplistic to think that profiling young Arab males would solve the problem. However, it is an easy way to get a leg up on things. We need to profile people based on behavior, appearance, destination, point of origin etc. It's police work, not put your blinders on and randomly screen every nth passenger. This isn't rocket science and I'm not the first person to come up with this stuff. Nonetheless, read the article above it will disabuse you of some preconceptions.
RADIOHEAD - YORKE IM AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRITE . 1. At least he's smart enough to realize it 2. He's honest enough to say so.
It’s Time To Take A Stand . Count me in. I'm not 100% in line w/ the platform but it's a hell of a lot closer to what either party is offering.
The Un-Funny Truth About Scientology . These people scare me. I haven't encountered them before (that I know of). I've seen them and their personality tests in various places but I have no patience for people soliciting from me in public so I've never spoken to them. The only upside to this cult is that it eats its own children which limits it's growth. They will never, ever run out of money. They simply drain too much of it from their zombies to ever do so.
Ayatollah's grandson calls for US overthrow of Iran Karl Rove's mind control beams have no limits! How else to explain this lunacy? He actually supports the USA! He's more pro-US than the Kos wing of the Democrat party. Liberals are always crowing about their "brave dissenting". This guy is brave. Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan? Please. They risk nothing. This guy is risking his very life. I'll be amazed if he doesn't get arrested in short order.
Bloggers Pick Up Hastert Land Deal Story . I knew there was a reason Hastert was so vehement in his defense of William Jefferson. My first thought was that he has his hand in the cookie jar and doesn't want to get caught. Right then and there I wanted him out. In fact, I am going to vote against any incumbent for the forseeable future. I stronly urge you to do the same. Washington is a swamp that breeds corruption over time. They whisper sweetly in your ear about how much money you can make. In the beginning, you have your principles and you say no. They wear you down. You can't say no forever. Campaigns are expensive and really, what's the harm. You're providing for your voters and if you make a little money in the process, that's ok. Nobody got hurt. Right? Besides, everybody else is doing it, why not you? Screw that. Vote them all out. P.S. I will very likely vote in 2008 for whichever party doesn't control Congress.