Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others,
are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Douglas Adams

Social Network Photos Bridge Taiwan-China Gap - Wired

The U.S. Postal Service expects to deliver over 3 billion cards and letters this holiday season. Halfway around the world, a group of young web enthusiasts have initiated their own version of Americans’ traditional year-end communication flurry.

read on ...

While perusing Wondermark, I came upon Carly Mondardo, and then venturing to her blog, I was led me to The Adventures of Dr. McNinja.

40 years ago today, man first steps onto another celestial body, the moon. To this day, only 12 people have done this.

Apollo 40th Anniversary - NASA

Restored Video from Apollo 11 Moonwalk - NASA

Many small steps led to Apollo 11's giant leap for mankind - ArsTechnica
Forty years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the surface of the moon, Ars looks at what led up to this monumental occasion, and congratulates all those involved.

This guy just has to much time on his hands - yes, pun intended  

http://www.dailyartpress.com/2009/05/art-with-folded-paper-by-simon-schubert.html

Click and be impressed!

Well, Wired has created time-lapse video of NASA satellite photos that show "deforestation, urbanization and drought".

What does 5 months of creation work get you? If you are *alanbecker on deviantART you create the sequel to Animator vs Animation (which took him a mere 3 months to create)

Animator vs Animation II

Here are a few links from APOD -- Astronomy Picture of the Day -- that you could say have to do with Halloween.

The Witch's Broom Nebula
A Witch by Starlight
Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
A Spooky Nebula
The Perseus Cluster's X-Ray Skull

FYI -- APOD is my home page and has been for years. I always liked learning something interesting when I first jump on the net.

14 October 1947 - Flying at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13.7 km) in an experimental Bell X-1 rocket-powered aircraft, American test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier.

How good is your eyeballing? My first try was 3.98.

http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/

 
RifleGear.com

Looking for that over the top Hello Kitty item for your daughter? Well, Crave found this beauty on RifleGear.com.

Hey, maybe if Charlton Heston has a grand-daughter, he can pick one up for her.

Check out this post on Craigslist - a Toshiba 600MHz laptop with 64MB of memory and a 6GB harddrive for only $240 !!!!

Oh... and it's "INTERNET READY" with a 56K modem.

Better jump on this deal!  

Many more here.

By ~dashofdaniel on deviantART

Artist's Comments:

A paraphrased quote on Microsoft's position on freedom. Microsoft hates the GNU GPL, and considers it to be a virus that infects everything it touches. The GNU GPL, and licences like it, preserve freedom. So logically, Microsoft hates freedom. This can be seen with the release of Windows Vista and all the delicious fun that OS has become to many who are now either switching back to XP, or getting off the Windows platform altogether. Microsoft also likes to use FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to stop people using Linux, the only reason being that they would lose money. Before anyone goes and says I am dealing with Microsoft too harshly, or anyone else things that getting a Mac is the solution, I will tell you now that Apple is as rotten to the core as Microsoft is (pun intended).

Check out Vladstudio for sweet wallpapers like this one.

Found this little gem while cruising the interent today.

Hmm, a canned cheeseburger! Although, you have to wonder if the picture doesn't quite show what the morsel would actually look like coming out of the can. I doubt the lettuce would be quite that green!

I've got to get a few for my bunker as I wait for the apocalypse.  

Either I lied blatantly or I'm not taking enough notes in those lectures with Dr. Evil. Maybe I should see if Dr. Lecter is offering anything in this coming quarter.

How evil are you?

Looking for something to do? Here are Steve Bass' Favorite Time-Wasters of 2007. "Ring in the New Year with loads of artistic videos, addictive games, and DIY projects - like how to avoid alien abductions."

This just in from PNC, the Christmas Price Index, aka 12 Day$ of Chri$tma$, is up 3.1% this year compared to 2006.

Watch the report here.

http://www.jellotime.com/  

The Secret Diary of Steve Ballmer

101 frightening ice cream flavors from around the world

A brilliant post on " 10 things i hate about star trek". It's a good laugh, hell, I'm still chuckling.

While your there, check out the replies, the bashing is pretty humorous in of itself.

Tired of those scooter gangs on their slug rockets reeking havic in your hood, just wait until the lowrider Cruzin Coolers come to your stomping ground!

This is one of 10 Ways to Have a Chilling Summer on PCMag.com.

The Strangest Sights in Google Earth - PC World

Ever since Google first let people scour the planet from the comfort of their computers through the Google Earth software program, fans have been on a virtual scavenger hunt from the North Pole to the South Pole looking for anything interesting, unusual, or unexplained. From shipwrecks to crop circles, from ads big enough to be read from space to a giant pink bunny nearly the size of a football field, we've collected just a few of the odd and spectacular sights. You can see the same images in Google Maps by clicking the links we provide--but you'll get a better view by copying the coordinates in parentheses after each link and pasting them into Google Earth's 'Fly To' box. We've also created a file of Placemarks that includes all of these sights and more; you can download it and open it with Google Earth. Enjoy the trip!

View on ...

Did you know? It's fair use day - ars technica

July 11, 2007, will mark the third-annual global "Fair Use Day," but chances are this is the first you've heard of it. Started back in 2005, "Fair Use Day" (project website) was created by Eric Clifford to raise awareness of the shifting balance in copyright laws around the world. Clifford acknowledges that Fair Use Day hasn't become the biggest advocacy day in existence, but perhaps the third time is the charm, as the Pirate Party of the United States has announced its support of the effort to raise awareness about copyright issues. As Clifford says, "Garbage had a day, taxes have a day, why not fair use?"

As we have chronicled here on Ars for years, copyright laws are increasingly being rewritten, modified, or tossed out in favor of new laws which grant copyright holders extremely broad powers over how you use content you pay for. Both Clifford and the Pirate Party hope that July 11 will serve as a day to remind users across the globe that fair copyright laws are essential to culture.

Read on ...

Tom and the smoothy button take on the iPhone.

http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=iphone 

2007 is the centenial of Robert A. Heinleins birth.

On Wikipedia:

• Robert A. Heinlein
• Bibliography
• His Characters

Quotes:

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.

The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship.

It's all about the balance

http://skatemoss.blogspot.com/2007/06/balance.html

via Fake Steve Jobs

A few iPhone units are having some battery problems

A nice play on the Dell battery fires. 

What really happened after the Death Star blew up.

http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=0fd921112e08096673a1100050fb4df1

The normal lolcats this is not.

To announce the winner of her campaign song contest, Hillary Clinton takes Tony's seat in the diner. She orders for the table. With a special appearance by Bill Clinton. Where's Chelsea? Parallel parking.

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/1902.html

From Wired.com - Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk

Minimoto Madness

Scroll about halfway down the page to check out the Toilet of Modern Art.

http://www.phototravels.net/vienna/vienna-hundertwasser-photos.html

Pete Jordan (aka Dishwasher Pete - myspace | wikipedia) has a new book out and there is a review on MotherJones with a short interview.

From MotherJones - How the poor get dinged at every turn:

Bush's tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those earning $1 million are saved $42,700.

In 2002, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) compared those who point out statistics such as the one above to Adolf Hitler.

Wondering where this info is true, read Paul Krugmans NYT editorial available on Truthout.

Which brings me to the last line of Krugman's editorial - "You see, some folks must be under the impression that as long as something is repeated often enough, it will become true. That was how George W. Bush got to the top." - guess that is why Bush thinks Iraq was a good idea, in his mind "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Gmail Paper and Google Tisp

Cnet News

Register - Research reveals mislaid microprocessor megahertz

The Independent - Grow-your-own Viagra craze hits Britain's garden centres

BBC

ITWire - Ballmer joins Linux Foundation board

Sites with more info:

Wikipedia

urgo.org

This is sweet, check out what you get when you go to www.ie7.com.

Guess MS never got around to registering that domain.

Yet another side of Mr. Zimmerman as envisioned by NYC's Post Show ensemble. Bob Dylan, the omnipresent Top-40 songwriting god, has never seemed more lucid.

~ update ~

I tried embeding the video, but those with IE7 couldn't see it or anything else on this page. So, instead, here is a link the the video. Just another day of MS not playing fair again.

Check out this stop motion film on YouTube. It's pretty cool.

This is just pointless

Man, haven't posted in a coons age.

Here are a couple of new links I have found recently pertaining to the installation of XP and Ubuntu:

Installing Ubuntu: A comparison of Ubuntu 6.06 and Windows XP
http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2006/06/installing-ubuntu-comparison-of-ubuntu.html

This weekend, I reinstalled XP and Ubuntu.
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221756

~~

I have been running Ubuntu for a good month and a half and have enjoyed the experience. I have had a couple of problems along the way, but overall, everything has gone incredibly smooth.

Picasa started acting funny a few weeks ago. It requires me to change the permissions on 2 nvidia files after every shutdown. It also imports photos in reverse order of time stamp and photo number. Very bizarre.

Thingamablog still requires to be started from a terminal window.

I am still playing around with music files and my iPods. I have started copying my music onto my laptop with the intention of trying out Banshee's ability to sync with my Nano. Right now I am burning all my purchased iTunes music onto cd's so that I don't have to rely on a Windows machine to update my iPods.

I have liked using Tomboy for making notes and gFTP has worked fairly well for me as a replacement for WS_FTP.

I do miss not having Roboform anymore. I am using KeePass for my passwords, but it doesn't intigrate into a web browser. I guess I could memorize my passwords, but just think of all the brain cells that would require.

Here is a collection of links I have found useful for my beginning Linux experience. They range from help sites to news sites and are in no particular order

http://www.control-escape.com
http://www.linuxlinks.com
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/
http://lxer.com/
http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/
http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/penguin.html - Lego Penguin
http://www.xpenguin.com/penguinlinks.php
http://www.linuxjournal.com/
http://www.linux-mag.com/

Check out this cool website for choosing which Linux distro to install

Linux Distibution Chooser

U.S. News and World Report has an article on 50 Ways to Impove Life in 2007.

Colors and you - Your choice of fave colors for different objects reveal your personality. - http://vn247.net/flash/Color-and-Me.swf

Your astrological sign shows insurance companies what kind of driver you are. - http://www.insurancehotline.com/a10.html

Christophers Walken's 12 Days of Christmas (Imagine him speaking it) - http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=1392

Will it blend?
http://www.willitblend.com/

What would happen if all the zip codes were connected numerically?
http://eagereyes.org/Applications/ZIPScribbleMap.html

Check out this "poster" of quotes, actions and info on the Bush administration on Jim Hightowers HightowerLowdown.

The New York Times reported this June that Bush was running another spy program. This one was snooping through international banking records, including millions of bank transactions done by innocent Americans. George reacted angrily to the exposure, branding the Times report “disgraceful” and declaring that revelation of his spy program “does great harm to theUnited States.” The White House and its right-wing acolytes promptly launched a “Hate-the-Times” political campaign.

Name the guy who was the first to reveal that such a bank-spying program was in the works: George W. Bush! At a September 2001 press conference, he announced that he’d just signed an executive order to monitor all international bank transactions.

I Know I'm Not Alone - Michael Franti travels to Iraq, Palestine and Israel to explore the human cost of war with a group of friends, some video cameras and his guitar.

Check out Guy Junkers web site, Junker Toons, featuring his cartooning. I thought the mountain bike ones where pretty funny.

Peacefire has added https:// support back to the www.StupidCensorship.com site. They found due to a common configuration error where networks are set up so that blocking software only applies to http:// sites and https:// sites past through unfiltered. https://www.StupidCensorship.com

They have also added http://www.TowerOfDonuts.com to their list of circumventor sites. Here are other circumventor sites that as of today still work.

Looking for that Halloween get away? Shall I suggest visiting Bran Castle in Romania?

Yes, the castle that Bram Stoker allegedly used for Dracula's Castle.

via Wikipedia:

In addition to its unique architecture, the castle is famous because of persistent myths that it had been the home of Vlad the Impaler; however, there is no physical evidence that Vlad ever lived there. According to most accounts, the Impaler spent two days in the Bran dungeon, as the area was occupied by Ottoman Empire at the time.

Bran Castle was subsequently featured in multiple film adaptations of Dracula, and has informally become known as Dracula's Castle. The local economy has made use of the connection to boost tourism, and postcards and t-shirts are available depicting the castle with the Dracula name.

More Info:
Bran Castle Museum
Bran Castle Pictures
Bran Castle Postcards
Legends and History

Life is hard for Chad Vader, the younger, less charismatic brother of Darth Vader, who is the day shift manager of Empire Market.

http://splu.net/chadvader.htm

Bush is a Speechalist? A video on Veoh Networks by tommyuki

http://www.veoh.com/videoDetails.html?v=e105745ssDkBTjj

Thanks Mark

http://www.107.peugeot.co.uk/peugeot.swf

As Linky and Dinky say "This Hooters chick will be world famous by this time next week.".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmqD1oRzzzc

Go check out this eye / brain trick. Strange stuff. http://youtube.com/watch?v=H-88wVw-1cU

The latest attempt by SaveTheInternet.com to bring people into the net neutrality debate is a downloadable mp3 tune by songwriters Jill Sobule, Kay Hanley, and Michelle Lewis called "God Save The Internet". It is set to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man".

Google Copernicus Center is hiring.

Google is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering.

If you happen to be going with the vpotus I'd be sure to take one of these. And watch out for that 18 hour time delay.

Stubled upon this while checking referrers to my web site. I couldn't figure out who to credit it to, but whomever you are, thanks.

Brrr!
http://www.markdaviesmedia.com/cold

Waiter, there are people all over my food!
http://legnangel.livejournal.com/564026.html

CellFlix Festival for cellular short films

The CellFlix Festival is an annual competition dedicated to the development of creative content for mobile delivery. It’s all about imagination, fantasy, and story – created through and presented on the small screen.

Mr. Greens Mistress has sent these along to share with all:

Mushroom Space - http://www.velutipes.com/

End of the World - http://www.endofworld.net/

Butterflies, lots and lots of butterflies - http://www.butterflyalphabet.com/NatureImage/categories/butterflies.htm

Halfbakery, may contain nuts - http://www.halfbakery.com/index-recent-by-date.html

Enjoy!

Daryl Cagle has put together a collection of Abramoff cartoons by all the top cartoonists. It is worth checking out.

© Paul Zanetti - 04.23.2005

Paul Zanetti's year in review is available on Daryl Cagle's Pro Cartoonist Index.

A Christmas Quiz

So the figures are in and the 12 days of Christmas cost has gone up 6.08% to $18,348.87 for this year. Did you save enough money this year to get your true love everything on the list?

Found this through Instapundit and it left me LOL.

Get your position here

Now there is one frightening thought.
Can you say "Scary"?

Not your normal Friday Night Mass. From the Critical Mass documentary site.

Be like Baldwin! Disastrous SAG/AFTRA Strike 2000 Pin
Celebrate the Screen Actors Guild supernova of 2000

DKNY Men's Leather Pants I Unfortunately Own
Stylish. Expensive. Very much a bad purchase for me.

Thanks to Mr. Greens Mistress.

Talk about funny, you have to watch this. It is a redo of The Shining's trailer done by Robert Ryang at P.S. 260, a commertial post-production house in NYC. This is what the site had to say "A post-production house organized a competition where assistant editors ‘re-cut’ trailers for famous movies to try and make them seem like different movies . . . . this is the one that won."

For more into check out these links:
The Tattered Coat
Making Light

ISS photos of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina.

NASA's Looking At Earth photos

Here are two links for bingo cards while watching OLN's coverage of the tour:

This one is for Phil, Paul and Bobke

This one is just for Phil and Paul

A competition for the blogs defending freedom of expression

Freedom Blog Awards

What time is it you ask? Well these are a few of the cool clocks I have found on the web:

http://www.designegg.com/insertmonkey/clock.html

http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/%7Eyugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/03/index.html

http://patchrapa.com/images/anaclock.swf

Flash interactive movies based on a paper by Edward H. Adelson.

http://web.mit.edu/persci/gaz/gaz-teaching/index.html

Well, it is a very nice April snowstorm here in Colorado today. It be dumping outside and I am inside cruising the internet. Here are some things I have found:

Check out the films on this site: sheepfilms.

This is just a funny joke today... but tomorrow?
Big Brother may be late, but he's coming...
I just wanted a pizza pie.

Not a damn one of these is true, but ignorant people will be fascinated by your knowledge! Amazing Facts!

Discover What the World Thinks About U.S.: Watching America

"Doodles, Drafts and Designs" is a travelling exhibition that was created by The Smithsonian Institute's National Museum Of American History. Doodles

How fast are your reactions? Try a reaction test called Sheep Dash.

Stupid Computer Tricks & Computer Stupidities

Westwords Best of Denver 2005

Here is a site that is a must visit. It is a collaborative art project:
http://www.eviltree.de/zoomquilt/zoom.htm

Enjoy!

Here's a list that's going to come in handy one day. You'll find out how to bypass and defeat voice-mail hell with ways to, well, find a human.

https://www.quickbase.com/db/85vqhz4a?a=q&qid=5

I was just cruising around the internet today and while at Ask Jeeves I happend upon their top 10 searches. Number 10 was "Federal Budget" and I thought, "what the heck" and followed the link. I found some interesting links and here they are:

• The Public Debt Online - The debt to the penny!
• National Debt Awareness Center - Advocates for reduction of the national debt.
• Budget Explorer
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• National Budget Simulation
• Congressional Budget Office

What is our current nation debt:

• As of 02/10/2005 the current nation debt is: $7,629,245,507,947.33
• of this $4,440,557,723,908.29 is Debt Held by the Public
• and $3,188,687,784,039.04 is Intragovernmental Holdings

So, out of curiosity I checked out the 20 questions against a computer site, 20q.net, to see how smart it really was. Shockingly, it figured out my first three items; a water bottle, a coin and a watch. Now, I figured quite a few people have thought of these before, so for my fourth one I thought long and hard and was finally able to beat it, a 35mm film cannister. Go give it a try.

Check out this site. Quite a few interesting essays to read.

The Mathematics of Responsibility
by Ran Prieur
February 7, 2002

It's frustrating to be stuck in a world where I actually have to point this out, but what we call "responsibility" is not distributed by breaking up "full responsibility" and dividing it into parts. If you add up everyone's responsibility for something, it doesn't equal 100% -- it equals a billion percent if it has to, because any number of entities can be fully responsible for the same thing. Another way to say it is that our responsibilities can and do overlap. Another way to say it is that nobody's responsibility for anything excuses anybody else.

For example, Hitler is fully responsible for every particular murder in the Holocaust. But so is the actual person who did the murder, and every person in the chain of command, and the fanatically repressive Prussian culture, and maybe the victim, if there was a chance to see the murder coming and fight or flee.

I just pushed a hot button, but it's hot only because of our idea of "blame," which is a lie. I don't "blame" anyone for anything, because I understand that blame is stuck responsibility -- falsely packing it all in one place to block it from being traced where you don't want it traced.

For example, if a woman gets drunk and passes out at a frat party, and she gets raped, and I excuse the rapist by saying the woman should have known better, then I am stupidly blaming the victim. But if I hold the rapist fully responsible, and also hold the society that trained the rapist fully responsible, and also notice that the victim took a huge risk and had the power to choose otherwise, then I'm not blaming anyone -- I'm being honest and paying attention.

This gets even trickier when someone is punished for doing something good. The Raise The Fist website was recently shut down in a violent police raid. Some people (who are being ripped off if they're not on the authorities' payroll) made slippery suggestions that the author of the site should have known the police would come after him, and therefore that he was somehow at fault.

"He should have known! Jesus should have known he'd be crucified! Gandhi should have known he'd get people beaten and killed. Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel should have known their activities would get them locked up. Idiots! When people threaten violence you should do whatever they say, or you deserve what you get!"

Read the rest of this essay.

The Richie Bush comic book cartoon, that you see above, is kind of like a movie poster for the video by Peter Kuper. The video is via Slate's Daryl Cagle.

Hope you enjoy it

iPods Dirty Secret

I have an iPod and really enjoy it. I use it daily on my bike commutes to work and home.

The unlucky think is, I did not do my homework and didn't realize that the battery is not replaceable. You should get about a 18 to 24 month life time from the battery. I nice little scam that Apple is running to get users to buy new iPod's.

Check out this parody of Light My Fire for Linspire.

http://media.linspire.com/RunLinspireSong/RunLinspire.swf

What if the entire world could vote in our presidential election?

Who would win the Kerry vs. Bush election?

You probably already guessed the outcome...

http://www.betavote.com/

The Trunk Monkey by Suburban Auto Group

Check out this page which shows the average IQ for a state and how it voted in the 2004 election.

http://americanassembler.com/features/iq_state_averages.htm

I came across this interesting project today.

Image a camera placed in one spot and taking pictures every hour. Add some sound and make it into a Flash movie. Then enable the viewer to view these scenes as slow or as fast as they wish. You can see the day in its quick robustness or in slow, detail catching snapshots. You also get the sounds that go with the changing pictures to put you more in the particular scene.

It's a cool place to go an visit another world. It might even make you appreciate yours just a little bit more.

http://www.theircircularlife.it/

Found this interesting site today while listening to Live Monsters and wanting to know the words to Bittersweet.

Kind of cool if you like poetry and stuff.

It's your call.

Found this informative site, FactCheck.org, while cruising around today. Their mission is:

"We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding."

Sounds pretty good to me! I think I'll be spending some time digging into this site.

I was checking out the P.O.V. Borders Environment site and found these interesting facts.

Bottled Water

• Americans spend 3 times as much for water as gasoline
• Americans spend $11,000 per minute on bottled water
• of the 100 brands tested by the NRDC, 1/3 failed to meet the clean water standards for tap water

Air

• The top 10 greenest vehicles of 2003 where all Japanese
• There are approximately 600 million cars around the world
• to accommodate its 214 million cars, the U.S. has paved 3.9 million miles of road, enough to circle the earth 157 times

Kind of interesting, if you ask me.

One final thought: The U.S. would save 4 million barrels of oil a day if everyone drove a hybrid car. Just think what that would do to OPEC and it's strangle hold on oil production.

Check out the Museum of Hoaxes top 100 pranks. There are definitely some kicking themselves for falling for some of these!

The Top 100 Hoaxes Of All Time

In a small nearby galaxy lies a luminous cloud of gas and dust, called a nebula, which houses a family of newborn stars. If not for the death of a massive star millions of years ago, this stellar nursery never would have formed.

The nebula, Henize 206, and the remnants of the exploding star that created it, are pictured in superb detail in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Henize 206 sits just outside our own galaxy, the Milky Way, in a satellite galaxy 163,000 light-years away called the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is home to hundreds and possibly thousands of stars, ranging in age from two to 10 million years old.

"The image is a wonderful example of the cycle of birth and death that gives rise to stars throughout the universe," said Dr. Varoujan Gorjian, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and principal investigator for the latest observation.

More: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2004-04/release.shtml

Check out this slide show of Hubble Telescope photos put to music.

http://wires.news.com.au/special/mm/030811-hubble.htm

Supposetly the new $20 bills have a tracking device in them that may explode in a microwave. I don't have a microwave to test this out with, so you are on your own.

RFID Tags in New US Notes Explode When You Try to Microwave Them

Found this interesting article on TomDispach.com by Nicholas Turse.

When, in October 1957, the USSR launched the first man-made earth satellite, the basketball-sized Sputnik, it caught the United States off guard and sent the government into fits. Not only had the Soviets exploded an atomic bomb years before the Americans predicted they would, but now they were leading the "space race." In response, the Defense Department approved funding for a new U.S. satellite project, headed by former Nazi SS officer Wernher von Braun, and created, in 1958, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to make certain that the United States forever after maintained "a lead in applying state-of-the-art technology for military capabilities and to prevent technological surprise from her adversaries."

Almost half a century later, what's left of the USSR is a collapsed group of half-failed states, while the U.S. stands alone as the globe's sole hyperpower. Yet DARPA, the agency for an arms-race world, seems only to be warming up to the chase. There may be no country left to take the lead from us, the nearest military competitor being China which reportedly had $65 billion in military expenditures in 2002 (compared to our $466 billion according to GlobalSecurity.org) and which, only in 2003, put its first "Taikonaut" into outer space. Undaunted, DARPA continues to develop high-tech weapons systems for 2025-2050 and beyond – some of them standard fare like your run-of-the-mill. hypersonic bombers, others more exotic.

The rest of the article:
http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=1290

In a February 23 speech, President Bush asserted what has become a common defense of his decision to go to war with Iraq. All nations saw the danger, he said, but only he had the courage to act. It is true that many nations believed that Iraq likely retained some undeclared chemical or biological weapons. But few thought the danger so grave and immediate as to require war over containment and intrusive inspections. In the UN Security Council, France was the most outspoken opponent of the rush to war. For their opposition, the French were ridiculed and reviled by many Americans, with the Congressional leadership going so far as to remove "French" from the fries and toast on Capitol Hill menus. One year later, rereading the French position, even the most ardent Franco-hater should admit they owe France an apology.

In two speeches, on February 14 and March 7, 2003, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin elaborated the French position before the United Nations Security Council. He asserted that UN inspections were successfully uncovering the truth on the ground in Iraq and containing the Iraqi threat. It is now clear that France was largely right about the threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and how to address it prior to the war.

http://www.ceip.org/files/nonprolif/templates/article.asp?NewsID=6019

You have to check out this press release from the White House. It smacks of humor but is an actual release on the White House web site.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040122-5.html

My roommate is famous now. Paula and her cockerspaniel, Mr. Green, made it on the internet.
http://www.javelinahunter.com/javelina_attacks_1_(cont).htm

Woke up way to early this morning and spent a couple hours perusing the JPL web site and all the Mars Rover info. Downloaded quite a few images from their press library. There are lots of cool pics to be had. The detail of some of the photographs is incredible. Pretty amazing when you consider that the info is traveling over 35 million miles to get here.

"Although it is trendy among teens like myself to pursue the opposite opinion, I admire President Bush because of his abilities to lead, and to do the right thing. He repairs the economy not by introducing new regulations and increasing business costs, but instead uses fundamental economic principles and by reducing taxes. Furthermore, his unwavering stance on terror not only makes my fellow Americans and I safe, but gives a sense of security to the world as well. Bush in '04! "

-- Derek Tam of Sacramento, CA

Robert DeNiro's SNL Opening
Be on the lookout for these terrorists:
I'Bin Pharteen, Shaif Hirbolls, I-zheet M'Drarz and I'stiqa M'Diqin
(warning: it's outloud and hilarious)
http://www.jillsjokeline.com/snl.html

"Year after year, a few dozen Washington consultants make the great majority of political ads. They look the same, they sound the same – even the actors seem familiar. Perhaps as a result, voters tune out, even when there are critically important messages to convey.
For the last three years, President Bush's policies have ransacked the environment, put our national security at risk, damaged our economy, and redistributed wealth from the middle class to the very wealthiest Americans. Yet thanks to a complacent media, the President has managed to hide behind a carefully constructed "compassionate" image. As the 2004 election nears, it's crucial that voters understand what President Bush's policies really mean for our country. And to do that, we need creative new ads that clearly show what's at stake." - bushin30seconds.org

Take some time and go check out these ads made by people like you and me. It is a political advertising contest sponsored by moveon.org voter fund, part of moveon.org. These folks put some time into them and they are worth watching.

Support Proper Judicial Review for Extradition Requests: The U.S. Senate may soon be asked to ratify a treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom that would weaken long-standing protections against politically motivated extradition requests.
Under this new treaty -- crafted in part by Attorney General Ashcroft -- the Administration would have expanded powers to approve the extradition to the United Kingdom of an American citizen or foreign guest. The proposed treaty weakens due process protections that ensure an extradition request is lawful and is not a pretext for punishment on account of race, religion, nationality or political opinion.
The proposed treaty would allow, for example, Irish-Americans and others to be extradited because they disagree with the U.K. government's policies in Ireland -- without having any ability to challenge whether the charges were politically motivated in an American court.
Take Action. Urge your Senators to reject ratification of the proposed treaty.
Click here to get more information and to send a free fax to your Senators: http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?ID=14624&c=24

A Hillarious Article In Westword - Cross-Dress for Success: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the show that transforms sloth-like macho men into burgeoning metrosexuals, received the seal of approval from American television audiences this year..
Imagine how much more exciting life would be if, say, Governor Bill Owens did his budget slashing while garbed in cute little capris. Or if Mayor John Hickenlooper occasionally addressed the Denver City Council from behind a silky set of one-inch lashes...
http://www.westword.com/issues/2004-01-08/sidebar.html/1/index.html

E-Ballots: Will Your Vote Count?: Controversy surrounds new e-voting systems set for wide use in 2004 elections. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114032,tk,wb010504x,00.asp

The NHL Entertainment Rankings: Which NHL teams provide the most amusement for your buck? The fun teams are not always the winners, and the winners are often not much fun. So forget the standings and the final score. When it comes to thrills, chills and spills, which NHL teams deliver the best value for a $150 ticket or an evening in front of the tube?
http://proicehockey.about.com/cs/nhlnotebook/a/entertain_rank.htm

Mission Control Alerts Station Crew to Slow Air Leak: The international space station is experiencing a slow, steady drop in air pressure, and American and Russian flight controllers are investigating possible causes of the leak. Mission Control notified astronaut Michael Foale and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri about the leak just before their bedtime late Monday afternoon. 'There's no action for you at this time and no immediate concerns,' Mission Control assured the two men. 'We'll continue to investigate this on the next shift and we may have some actions for you tomorrow [Jan. 6th].'
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/exp8_update_040105a.html

Anonymity complete GUIDE: Nowadays, everyone wants privacy on the web, because no matter where you go, someone could be watching you. Someone like your employer, someone trying to hack your system, companies gathering all your info to sell to yet other companies, or even the government, may be on your track while you peacefully surf the web. Thus, anonymity on the web means being able tu use all of its services with no concern about someone snooping on your data.
http://www.governmentsecurity.org/articles/AnonymitycompleteGUIDE.php

From Westword:
Rich in wildlife and natural resources, the Roan Plateau survived the last energy boom. Will this one destroy it?
By Alan Prendergast
The stark shale cliffs rise north of the interstate, towering over the town of Rifle. From below, the 3,500-foot stone pillars look forbidding and lifeless, like books placed on a shelf for show. But to Joe Clugston, there's nothing dead about the geologic upheaval looming over his home -- not yet, anyway.
The Article

Sierra Club readers rank Bush Administration's 2003 attacks on the environment

The Sierra Club - sierraclub.com - 12/31/03

1. MERCURY RISING - Issued public health warnings to pregnant women and children about mercury after announcing policy changes to triple amount of mercury pollution allowed from power plants.
2. SUPER DUPED - Became first administration to support shifting burden of Superfund toxic waste cleanups from polluters to taxpayers.
3. SOOTY SANTA - Dismantled provision of Clean Air Act that requires oldest, dirtiest power plants and refineries to curb soot and smog pollution.
4. BACK IN BLACKOUT - Proposed a national Energy Bill that did nothing to reduce dependence on foreign oil, repair or address antiquated electricity grid, or protect special places from oil and gas drilling.
5. DRILLING WILDERNESS - Opened nearly 9 million pristine acres in Northwest Alaska to the oil and gas industry for exploration and drilling.
6. STONEWALLING, BIG TIME (tied)- Continued to withhold documents from secret meetings between Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force and energy industry lobbyists.
7. DON'T AX, DON'T TELL (tied) - Promoted a wildfire policy that expanded commercial logging in the backcountry but did little to protect people where they live.
8. NEXT STOP, SHINOLA - Allowed untreated sewage to be blended with treated sewage, cut funding for local sewage treatment, and didn't require health officials to warn public about sewage in water.
9. CRITICAL CONDITION - Obliterated the process of critical habitat designation for imperiled wildlife under the Endangered Species Act.
10. COP OFF - Continued pattern of willful negligence for enforcement of even basic clean water and clean air laws.
11. POST 9/11 LIES - Discovered by EPA Inspector General to have lied about post 9/11 environmental health hazards near Ground Zero.
12. ROAD WARRIOR - Expanded the legal loophole that allows obnoxious road claims through federally protected wilderness, national parks, and public lands.
13. HOG WASH - Secretly negotiated backroom deal to exempt giant animal factories from laws governing air and toxic pollution.
14. POLLUTED LOGIC - Refused to classify industrial carbon emissions, linked to global warming, as an official pollutant under the Clean Air Act.
15. HOT AIR - Proposed fantasy hydrogen power initiative to improve auto fuel efficiency rather than promoting more proven technologies like gas-electric hybrids.
16. ESTATE TOX - Ended a 25-year ban on the sale of PCB-laden real estate.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16211

There is a school teacher from Hanover, Va. and his students who are trying to get the U.S. Constitution put on the back of the $1 bill. It is probably an up hill battle, but you have to give them credit for trying.

Here is there web site and here is an article in USAToday about it.



Pretty Cool, Huh?

Found this interesting collection of information about Saddam Hussein today. It is a collection of declassified documents the Nation Security Archives just released. It includes the famous handshake between Saddam and Donald Rumsfeld that took place twenty years ago today!

You know, the more things change, the more they stay the same. I can't wait to see who America tries to get into bed with next, give them money and support and then have to go in and clean up the mess we created in the first place.

I was turned onto this by Matt Bivens Daily Outrage blog.

Happy Holidays, Pedro

Ho Ho Holy Shit is the site of Santa's Blog. Ah, this ain't the Santa's Workshop of my childhood!

Enjoy and have a Merry Christmas,
Pedro

If you're stuck for a last-minute Christmas present for a loved one, they could do worse than to receive this almost-life-size Homer Simpson replica. His outstretched hand holds a can of beer (you provide a can of your choice) - great if you need a cupholder.

Its maker, Sean Kenney, has been creating things out of little plastic blocks since 1998. His Web site, BrickApple.com, is a wacky journey through his constructions, many of which are inspired by the Big Apple - New York City. He's assembled a lot of urban scenes, and his site is also rife with convertible Beetles, taxis, and other stuff that's an incredible hoot.

“CAUTION: THIS QUIZ MAY SURPRISE YOU, SHOCK YOU, OR MAKE YOU THINK. PLEASE REMAIN CALM...BUT NOT TOO CALM!!”

Those who are perhaps a little too secure in their environmental stewardship would do well to take this admonition from Earth Day Network to heart. At the group’s Ecological Footprint Quiz site, those who dare can see just how environmentally friendly, or not, their daily activities are. Here's more on the quiz's methods and goals.

You’ve been warned.

Well, Denver got its first real snowstorm of the winter yesterday. Somewhere around 5"+ hit parts of the city and surrounding areas. It made a real mess of the streets, cars where sliding everywhere. Doesn't look like I will be commuting by bicycle for a few days. Hopefully it will be sunny enough for the next few days to enable the bike path to clear up a bit.

Anyway, last night we took the light rail down to the "Can" to watch the Avs get get blanked by the Kings. Man, did the Avs just look bad last night! Unfortunately we where sitting behind the wrong goal for most of the game as all the action was in the Avs end for most of the game and thus, for 2 periods, everything was going on in the other end. At least it was warm as opposed to Edmonton where it was -2 and the game was outside! Well maybe the next game I get to go to things will go better. Seems like most of the time the Avs are playing these days that should not be a problem.

Received this letter by email the otherday from Senator Wayne Allard

The weather has giving me a good excuse to sit in front of my monitor and keyboard and wander around the information highway. Here are some items of interest I have found:
F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies - The agency has collected information on demonstrators and has advised local officials to report suspicious activity to counterterrorism squads.
How to Make the Deficit Look Smaller Than It Is - President Bush and Congress seem to view the Social Security surplus more as a cookie jar than a lockbox.
Love in the Time of No Time - How Internet dating is re-engineering flirtation, seduction, relationships and the love-seeking self.
NASA Official Hopeful on Shuttle Progress - NASA is making steady progress toward returning its shuttle fleet to flight so that construction of the International Space Station can resume, the agency said.
Thousands pay tribute to Kennedy - Thousands of people in Dallas, Texas, have marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination there of United States President John F Kennedy.
Wal-Mart to write own name on notebooks - The retail giant reportedly plans to launch a line of notebooks under its own brand name next year, a move that could push down prices, say analysts.
Senate may move on bill to ban Net-access tax - A logjam appears close to breaking on stalled bill to permanently ban taxes on Internet access, but final shape of the bill uncertain.
Daily Outrage: Royal Airs - George Bush irks the Queen by bringing an army of his personal chefs to Buckingham Palace.

Cool Sites: Office 2003 Editions: Compare Them to Previous Versions
Skyhigh Airlines
Nixon Librarys Online Store - Check out the bowling shirt!

Well, the final tabulations are in and the verdict is:
www.LarsonsWorld.com is 29% Evil and 71% Good!
This, of couse, was drived by using the "infallible methods" of the Gematriculator. Better head right on over there and check your favorite phrase or web site. ;)

This guy wants your help to become the ultimate safeway shopper.

You've heard about it! You know it's out there! Now is your time to pre purchase your
Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush - U.S. President and Naval Aviator - 12" Action Figure

You better buy one now as we all know these things will be scooped up like hot cakes on a cold Colorado morning. Best get your order in now ;)

Unfortunately, it does not come with a "Mission Accomplished" sign. You will have to track down the unknown sailor on the USS Abraham Lincoln who put that up. Funny how it perfectly framed the Prez though ;)

Anyway here are some more articles on Dubba's fateful landing:
Keepers of Bush image lift stagecraft to new heights
White House pressed on 'mission accomplished' sign

Wipe That Smile Off Their Faces! Pop Their Balloons, Disconnect The Dots, Break Up The Team, Burst Their Bubbles, Take The Shine Off The Statue, Litter Their Reports With Frownie Faces, and Put A Pimple On It using the tactics of Demotivation.

http://www.despair.com/demotivators/

OK all you wantabe porn stars - Looking for that killer name you want up in lights, here is the place for you:
My Porn Name

Here are a few things that I collected this morning before biking of to work. There is a little of everything here, and I mean little ;). The time just flies by when you are surfin' the net.

TrekEarth - Learning about the world through photography. Go on a trek around the world via the 14,000+ photos on this site. It's cheaper than buying an airplane ticket and paying for a hotel.

The Snowmobile Quagmire - The snowmobile issue demonstrates once again that when it comes to public lands the Bush administration is always willing to sacrifice public good for private interest.

A Tale of Two Journalists - Whatever happened to the Ashcroft who would jail a reporter for months for not revealing sources?

The Iraqi Weapons Puzzle - A NYT Editorial

Iraq in Review - A Washington Post Editorial

PopPolitics - Can't remember how a came across this site, but I found it kind of interesting. I especially found this article of interest: "Step aside, I'll show thee a president": George W as Henry V?
HTML Goodies - Found this site the other day. I havn't had enough time to really peruse it, but it does look interesting.
Where else can you viciously spoof the Government and get away with it? Whitehouse.org wins awards for it's intense mockery of belt-way B.S.

I have a whole selection of items for posting today. Hopefully you can find something to entertain you ;).

Four rookies make Avalanche lineup as Colorado makes final cuts Sunday - Only 4 days left till the first game :) - Only 6 months left till the last game ;}

Rock-Paper-Scissors 2003 International World Championships - You only have 5 days left to sign up!
For Our Matchless Friends - An interesting tour of match packs

9/11/01: Where Was George? - The various accounts offered by the White House are almost all inconsistent with one another.
The Other Lies of George Bush - The President started telling whoppers long before Iraq.
Bush backs Israeli 'self-defence' - OK George, what ever you say!

Wee bit o' fun with magnets

Make a shirt for a $1 , I did!