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

Did you know the Peace Symbol

is derived from the semaphoric symbols for N and D

N -- D --

which stand for Nuclear Disarmament?

Autumn Equinox & Hobbit Day 

Tomgram: Michael Klare, Energy Xtremism -- TomDispatch.com

Talk about roller-coaster rides: the price of a barrel of crude oil, which was still under $20 the week after September 11, 2001, made it to $147 in July 2008, just before the global economic meltdown, only to hit a low of $32.40 early this year. And yet, in recent months, hardly noticed, it's crept back above $70 -- and this with "recovery" barely on the horizon and global industrial demand still muted at best. And that's the good news.

read on ...

Bicycles, books and beer -- High Country News

How a man with no plan built a community around literature and social activism.

read on ...

America, the beautiful (America, the ugly) -- Salon

You could do a lot worse with the next 220 days of your life than to begin each one by reading an entry from the freshly published "A New Literary History of America" -- the way generations past used to study a Bible verse daily. You could do a lot worse, but I'm not sure you could do much better; this magnificent volume is a vast, inquisitive, richly surprising and consistently enlightening wallow in our national history and culture.

read on ...

What a fat tax really means for America -- Slate Magazine

Not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, in the winter of 1942, physiologist A.J. Carlson made a radical suggestion: If the nation's largest citizens were charged a fee -- say, $20 for each pound of overweight -- we might feed the war effort overseas while working to subdue an "injurious luxury" at home.

read on ...

Smoking bans cut heart attacks by a third: study -- Reuters

Smoking bans in public places can reduce the number of heart attacks by as much as 36 percent, offering fresh proof that the restrictions work, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

read on ...

Tiny technologies could produce big energy solutions -- CNN

Forgot to charge your cell phone last night? Imagine that you could power it by walking. Weirder still, you might be able to just spray a new battery on.

read on ...

1. You are a participant in a race. You overtake the second person. What position are you in?

2. Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Add another 1000 . Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add 10. What is the total?

3. Mary's father has five daughters: 1. Nana, 2. Nene, 3. Nini, 4. Nono, and ??? What is the name of the fifth daughter?

4. A mute person goes into a shop and wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing his teeth he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done. Next, a blind man comes into the shop who wants to buy a pair of sunglasses; how does he indicate what he wants?

~~~

1. Second

2. 4100

3. Mary

4. Asks for them.

Mr. Green - The Biggest Dog In The World

A little over a week ago, a very good friend of mine lost his battle with cancer, leaving a hole in quite a few hearts.

To help celebrate his life, I wish to share with you some of my favorite photographs of "The Biggest Dog In The World" - Mr. Green.

With thoughts of Mr. Greens Mistress and tears in my eyes.

Wow, it's been a while. Been neglecting my blog something serious. Well let's see if we can't change that

Caught Crissie Hynde ala The Pretenders tonight.

Great, Great Show.

Had the usual stop at Petes Kitchen for breakfast.

Now water, asprin and bed.

Check out the new label on New Belgiums' Fat Tire.

Hey, I thought is was cool -- no pun intended

Charles Darwin's "On The Origin of Species" is first published on this day in 1859.

Tony Auth - 04 November 2008

Being the prognosticator that I am, I didn't make the early voting the past two weeks and finally made it today. I was surprised by the fact that there was no line, and i mean literally no line. I walked right in, showed my ID and was off to fill out the giant Colorado paper ballot and I mean giant in two ways. The paper itself was 12x24 or so and all 4 sides where filled with local and federal positions along with 14 amendments . Luckily I had my cheat sheet with me so I was in and out in under 10 minutes.

Then I was off to Starbucks for my free cup of coffee with my 'I Voted' sticker.

 
Nick Anderson - 04 November 2008

Oh, if you didn't vote, don't complain to me about what happens. IMO, you gave up that right by not voting.

I'm watching the NBA playoffs, with Boston just winning. The camera and interviewer are talking with Kevin Garnett. He is on top of the world. I could say he is going over the top. He walks away and there is Bill Russell. There is a big hug and Kevin says "I hope I made you proud, I hope I made you proud"

To me, that gave Kevin credentials. To me, that was sweet!

~

Oh, by the way, Boston won by a 39-point margin giving them the NBA record for largest margin of victory in a championship game. The previous record - Celtics victory over the Lakers, game 5, the 1965 NBA finals.

And what are you doing to celebrate this years Earth Day?

Earthday.net

The Green Lantern - Illuminating answers to environmental questions.

The Green Guide- Green living tips, product review, environmental health new.

Going Green - Get the latest news on the business of environmental technology, including hybrid cars, alternative energy and carbon emission standards.

What color do Smurfs turn when you choke them?

It's be a year (to the day I believe) since I've installed Ubuntu on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and it's been a fun ride. So, if you have a few minutes, let my tell you my story.

Last winter we had a bit of snow here in Denver that left us with little we could actually do outside. After the first few weeks of January, cabin fever started setting in and I began playing around of the idea of putting Linux on my computer. I can't remember exactly how or why, but I ended up downloading Ubuntu 6.10 and tried the LiveCD on my laptop. It worked wonderfully and I decided to do a dual boot with XP so I could see how it actually functioned day to day. Well, I dun f***ed up the dual boot and ended with a PC that would do anything. Can you say nOOb!

I have been a practitioner of the backup for years, so after a few minutes of utter panic, I calmed down and remembered everything was backed up on an external drive. (OK, I did inevitably loose a weeks worth of emails, no great loss.)

As luck would have it, having been an experimenter and no great fan of MS, I had moved onto programs that where all cross-platform (Thingamablog, Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird) but one (MS Money). Thus, I thought, what the hell, maybe I should just install Ubuntu by itself. So I did.

It was shocking once Ubuntu was installed. I have media buttons on the front of my laptop, they worked. All my data for Thunderbird, Firefox and Thingamablog was easily loaded. All the function (Fn key) keys on keyboard worked. It was amazing to me, I never expected this all to work so well. I was sold.

I did have some problems, suspend had issues and there was the problem with no wireless. I spent some time on the Ubuntu forum and after some time of trial and error the wireless kicked in. Honestly, I still have no idea how I was able to get the wireless working, all I know is, boom, it worked one day and has ever since. Suspend came around after a month or so.

I spent the next few months perusing everything Linux. I learned cool commands to run from the Terminal. I played with installing and removing programs from the Add/Remove manager and the Synaptic Package Manager. I screwed things up and re-installed 6.10 a few times. The first time I did this, I was amazed by the fact that quite a few of the settings in my /home folder (set on a different partition, something I started doing way back when from my 2-3 re-installs per year of Windows to keep it clean) kicked right in. Things like Tomboy notes where all there, KeyPass knew where to look for its database, JAlbum and Thingamablog where able to start without having to re-install them. These kind of things where unheard of from my Windows days, it was re-install everything and update all settings to my liking.

Then, along came 7.04. I promptly upgraded to it. Oops. Then I downloaded and did a fresh install. Much better. The first few weeks it acted a little funny, issues mainly with suspend. Once a month went by it was smooth sailing. I spent more time on anything Linux or Ubuntu. I downloaded and tried other distros LiveCDs, spend more time exploring the Linux OS and even tried to help out on the forums (I never really did learn enough to be much help, but I tried).

With the other distributions, I found no reason the change. I was happy with how my laptop worked, so why change. I spent some time on Gnome-look and figured out how to change my splash screen, login in screen and themes. In all I was settling in quite nicely with my new OS and how it worked.

As October was coming closer I was getting excited with the prospects of 7.10. Once it was released I promptly upgraded. Oops. Then I downloaded and did a fresh install. Much better. The first few weeks it acted a little funny, issues mainly with suspend. Once a month went by it was smooth sailing (hmm, sounds familiar?) I played around with the new graphics for a while, installing software for widgets and desktop toolbars. In the end, I removed Compiz as I am happy a simple UI and don't need the fancy graphics. The Panel with shortcuts on it works just fine for me and I never really did like things all over my desktop (see). This also explains why I never switched to a KDE distribution.

Of course there was that Load_Cycle_Count issue. For me the fix was removing Tracker, something I didn't use anyway.

So now I am just waiting for 8.04 to come out. I've learned to wait for a month or so before I install the upgrade. Actually I will probably do a fresh install, I never have liked how upgrades go whether Windows or Linux. Once it is running I probably will not upgrade again, what, with 8.04 being a LTS version. For this laptop it should be just fine for it's life.

All in all, it has been a fun little adventure. I'll keep running Linux and helping all my friends with their Window boxes and laptops. I doubt I'll ever be one to get anyone to switch to Linux, Windows works for them and there is no reason tor them to change right now. Maybe when XP is no longer supported the time may come. However, I will do what ever it takes to keep them away from Vista.

I'll keep perusing Ubuntu forums and the various Linux sights - I especially loved finding the flame wars between Linux and XP/Mac, KDE and Gnome and the various distributions. The second two seem so ironic to me, isn't Linux suppose to be about choice? Occasionally I might throw my 2 cents in, but I think pretty much I just be user from here on out. I have found an OS that works and I don't have to worry about.

I am one happy Ubuntu camper.

Mr Burkill and Mr Coward are said to have shared a curry on Thursday night after the incident.

What the BBC reported reported today about Captain Peter Burkill and Senior First Officer John Coward of British Airways flight BA038.

Those English chaps are so cool and casual, no wonder 007 came from England and not the U.S.

I found this after perusing BBC further:

The British Air Line Pilots Association (Balpa) said Mr Burkill and his co-pilots went for a curry on the night of the crash in an attempt to "return to normality".

Ah ... those Brits and their "return to normality". Curry ... we have so much to learn on the other side of the pond. Here it would have been "return to normalcy" and thus beer, wings and scantily clad young woman.

OK, maybe that's just me. You may be different.

I'm watching President Bush right now and have two questions:

1. Why the striped grey jacket with blue tie and shirt?

2. What books are behind him?

Yep, they are off topic.

It's a beautiful thing - 3 Jacks Sports Bar & Grill, my favorite watering hole, has Wifi! And it's WPA protected!

Now I can go get their kickass Santa Fe Grilled Chicken Salad, have a Fat Tire and go online, like I am doing right now.

Brook, you rule!  

And remember, on Tuesdays they have $3 Fat Tire tall boys and for bowl games $3.75 pints and $10 pitchers of Fat Tire.

PS: Be sure to ask Anthony about the bar tricks he is teaching himself.

While watching the Colts - Ravens game, there was a little video feature about when the Colts left Baltimore. One of the interesting facts: when Indianapolis plays in Baltimore, they don't put Colts on the score board, they put Indy. All other teams are listed by their team name, not city!

http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/gallery.asp 

If carrots are so good for your eyes, why are there so many dead rabbits on the highway?

After reading Xandros 4: The best desktop Linux for Windows users on DesktopLinux I headed over to Xandros to check it out. I happened to click on one of the purchase links and this page came up with the following:

Through its agreement with Xandros, Microsoft offers patent covenants for Xandros customers. These covenants will provide customers confidence that the Xandros technologies they use and deploy in their environments are compliant with Microsoft's intellectual property.

Would you like to purchase patent protection for your Xandros Desktop?

If you click on the "Yes, please tell me more" link you go to this page with the following:

Microsoft's patent assurance program provides you with perpetual protection for your Xandros Desktop. This includes the software included when you purchase Xandros Desktop, any service packs to that version, and any additional software that is available from Xandros' repository through Xandros Networks. It does not include third-party software not included with your Xandros Desktop, software downloaded through non-Xandros repositories, or major version upgrades (e.g. from version 4.2 to 5.0).

With its assurance program, Microsoft agrees to never hold you legally liable for violating Microsoft intellectual property. This program is available for $50.

Let me get this right, I have to pay an additional $50 for not being liable for a possible 235 patents that Microsoft claims LInux and other open-source programs violate but will not actually identify.

It makes me wonder what this money really is for. Is it just a kick back to Microsoft?

Overall it just sounds like extortion to me.

Lets see, it is day 7 of the Tour de France and I am finally watching a bit of the racing this morning on VS. The tour has hit the beginning of the Alps, ahh, the mountain stages. I really haven't followed the tour this past week, so I have some to burn some midnight oil to catch up and find out what is happening.

It has been fun listening to Phil and Paul again.

~

Tour thrives before thin heartland crowds - IHT

The weather was balmy, the course beautiful, the race exciting, but the crowds in Burgundy were generally small for the fifth stage of the Tour de France.

That does not mean, however, that the Tour is not alive and well in the heart of the country.

One explanation for the sparse turnout in three days so far in France is that the Tour has been traversing regions that do not attract vacationers, the usual bulk of spectators. A test of that theory will come in the Alps, starting on Saturday, and in the south next week.

For now, however, as it passed through villages so remote that cellphones went blessedly dead, the Tour showed on Thursday that, despite all the doping scandals and suspicions surrounding bicycle racing, it retains its traditional grip on such places as Lormes, population 1,300, most of whom turned out to celebrate the race's visit.

Read on ...

~

Casey Gibson takes the best photos!

Brian Fairrington

Cagle.com has a whole collection of Romney for President cartoons for your viewing pleasure.

By the way, don't get me wrong, I don't thing a mans religious beliefs could or should be the reason to vote for or not vote for a candidate.

That just seems incredible shallow to me.

Think about a dog barking.

Think about the term bow-wow as related to a dogs bark.

Where did that come from?

Stuart Carlson - May 7th, 2007

Ah, the convoluted American way. Don't conserve, just complain. We are one confused nation.

Hit Denvers Fillmore for Elvis Costello and The Imposters this evening. I must say, I started the night off as a sour puss. You litterly could not give away extra tickets at the show, let alone try to sell them. The show was not sold out and the 'scalpers' were only offering $10 for extra tickets an hour before the show. I made the mistake of going and having a beer and waiting for closer to show time to try to sell my extra tickets. By the time I headed for the door, even they had given up and headed home.

So, I waited outside the door for awhile to see if any one was looking for tickets, and then looking for anyone to give them to, no luck.

I go inside looking to wash away my disappointment with a cold beverage and find The Fillmore only opened a couple of the bars. This I just don't understand.

I wait 7 - 10 minutes in line for a malt beverage, Elvis is on the stage and I am trying to get into the show. It just ain't happening. I make it up to the head of the line, purchase my beers and head off to find my roommate.

Elvis and his three piece band are just ripping through numbers. Three - four minutes a song and boom into the next one. We are initially standing 15 feet or so behind the sound board. A spot opens up along the back railing of the sound board and I motion my roommate up with me.

The sound is excellent. There are no big heads in the way of our view. Elvis and The Imposters are rocking.

They play for an hour and take an encore break. We are like, WTF? He comes back out, does an acoustic Alyson and they continue playing for another 40 minutes or so.

Total concert time: 1:45. Ticket cost: $56 (not including tickets not sold). My attitude at the end of the night: I am smiling ear to ear.

It may have been a short show, but I am replete.

If you get the chance, go see Elvis Costello and The Imposters

Want further confirmation read these two reviews ( #1 - #2 )from the Warfield three nights ago.

So with the equinox behind us the earth is warming up, at least here in the northern hemisphere. Thus, hopefully we won't be seeing anymore snow and the flip-flops, at least in the US ,can stay on for the rest of the spring and summer seasons.

And, you might ask, is there only one way of reckoning the seasons?

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."

I don't know what I did, but Google doesn't like me anymore. They have removed me from their database. When you type in "anthony peter larson" into Google, I don't show up anywhere - as compared to Yahoo! or Live, where LarsonsWorld shows up usually first. I have gone pages deep and found nothing. After checking Dogpile, Altavista, Ask and other search engines, LarsonsWorld shows up on the first page somewhere. Very strange.

Check it out:

• Google
• Yahoo!
• Live
• Dogpile
• Altavista
• Ask
• Excite

~ update ~

I finally found it on Google, page #86, the second to last page!

~ update ~

If you put anthony peter larson in quotes, just one website shows up.

~ update ~

I must have pissed off the pigeons

Saw the Gin Blossoms last night at the Walnut Room.

Favorite quotes (probably not the exact quote, but you'll get the idea):

Jesse Valenzuela - It's nice to be in Denver. You have a drinking problem, but I like you any way.

Robin Wilson:

1. We know about 20 songs and we are going to play most of them tonight
2. Give us a few minutes, we're going to drink our shots and figure out what where playing next. - This was right after Jesse above statement (:

The Walnut Room is a small venue to say the least, it holds maybe 200. Being that small there is not a bad view in the house, unless some tall guy with a big head is in front of you - I think tall people should be regulated to be behind those of us that are vertically challeged. I think I'll call my rep in DC about this. ;) - Anyway, where was I, oh yea, they have an excellent sound system and lights for such a small place - I would definitely suggest ear plugs if you go. Last night was the 2 year anniversary so the included a couple free drinks and free pizza prior to the show.

The pizza was damn good and so was the show.

~ update ~

Forgot to mention Pete's Kitchen for after show breakfast burrito. Nothing like Pete's Kitchen for late night breakfast.

I am sitting over at my local Einsteins using their hotspot and enjoying it. I wasn't sure how easy it would go with my Linux system, but no problemo. Just a click in the NetworkManager and away we go. It is slow compared to my wireless at home, but it's nice to be out of the house and connected.

Last week the power supply died on my DVR. With this opportunity at hand, I decided to go with a new Silverstone LC13 HTPC case to replace the Silverstone TJ06 case I had been using as I wanted to get it up off the floor. Because of the 3 dogs in the house and where it was located, the case seemed to be taking more that average amount of dust and dog hair which led to the eventual downfall of the power supply, and luckily just that. So, anyway, most of yesterday was spent rebuilding that system. I had no problems with the disassemble and rebuild, it was all very straight forward. The longest part of the day was installing WinXP and the required drivers, but once I was to the BeyondTV install, it was all downhill from there. The LC13 is not as quiet as the TJ06, but it does look better in the living room than the big tower case.

I did receive a little grief yesterday about using WinXP on that system. I would like to change over to Linux on it, but I am waiting for Linux DVR software to come of age. There are a few out there such as MythTV, but from what I have read they are close although still needing some development.

Made it out for my first ride of the year today. Yep, it's about time. The body was in a bit of shock at first - "Hey, what the hell is going on here? Are you fuckin' crazy? Put a halt to this ... NOW !!!" - but it came around after a few minutes in the saddle. Speaking of the saddle, it might take a while for the buttox to come around, it is still bitchin' about the ride. The legs aren't feeling to bad, but tomorrow will tell the truth on them. I am sure they would have been happy to have one of these for the ride.

Saw this Schwinn with a King bcycle motor at Lincoln Light Rail Station recently. I didn't see the owner so wasn't able to find out how well it works. Seems pretty cool though.

~ update ~

But doofus, that would take all the fun out of it!  

My thanks goes out to doofus for his colorful comments as of late. I loved the most recent email address you left - billgates@ubuntu.com - classic. Oh, by the way, you never want to get your linux stuck in your Thingamablog, trust me, it can be painful.

Maybe this snow will melt some day and we can take our bikes out. We may need training wheels though, it's been so long.

~ Update ~

It just occurred to me - someone is actually reading these post on a regular basis. Holy shit Margarette, best mark the calendar.

I have started using Mozilla Thunderbird. One of the things that surprised me the most about the program was it's ability to import my Outlook pst file. I was shocked to say the least.

I think the program works great. I like how fast it loads and starts downloading mail, none of that waiting like with Outlook and it's forever loading. Overall Outlook was probalby overkill for me anyway, all I really needed was email and calendar.

For my calendar I am experimenting with the Lightning calendar addon, which although not very powerful is fine for keeping basic dates. Hey, it works for me.

Something I have been wondering about is, if the telecoms get control of the internet and are able to control which web sites get good or bad access and with the NSA getting access to the telecoms, will the NSA have a say in which sites to get good or bad access?

Spent part of the afternoon yesterday tossing my new recycled Fat Tire Flyer disc at the local park. It's a nice Wham-O 175 gram frisbee made with 60% post consumer recycled polyethylene. And for just $6.50 it's an awesome deal.

I Scream,
You Scream,
We All Scream,
For Ice Cream.

Ah, yes, the first signs that summer is just around the corner, I heard the the ice cream truck playing it's little tune cruising the neighborhoods today. It always reminds me of Eddie Murphys ice cream routine from back in his red leather days.

That little tune brings up a question, I wonder how many drivers they go through in a season? I just know that jingle repeating itself over and over and over would drive me crazy in no time.

Here are a couple photos from the first ride on the new year. OK, I rode home from work early Sunday morning, but I am not counting it for 2006, it goes in 2005 as it was part of my work commute on the 31st. My rides, my rules. Anyway, the photos:

Yea, I look a little funny. I believe I was saying "cheeseburger" at the time.

I have to say it was a magnificent day. Denver, the 2nd of January, clear sunny skys, temperatures in the high 50's and spending the day outside biking with your friends. Can you ask for anything more? I think not. Thanks guys.

I took these photos today while riding down the Cherry Creek Bike Path to my favorite store.

This next one is from the geese sculpture in Cherry Creek Mall. Only one goose received the Santa Clause Hat.

~~~~~~

I have to say it was a much nicer day today for riding than recent days. Man, a few of those mid-week days where rather chilly rides to work in the early morning. The fingers and toes where not happy campers once I arrived downtown. I must say it was rather hard falling out of bed knowing how cold it was going to be once I wandered outside. This next week is looking much nicer with temps only dropping to the low 20's. A much nicer prospect that those minus 5 to 10 degree mornings of this past week.

Fatter rear ends are causing many drug injections to miss their mark, requiring longer needles to reach buttock muscle, researchers said on Monday.

I have caught this story via a couple of different media and the one thing I have noticed is that no one is suggesting anyone lose weight, we just need to make longer needles. Isn't there something fundamentally wrong with that train of thought? Isn't this another good reason to fight the obesity epidemic that is running rampant through out this country and spilling over into others? I would think so. But, (no pun intended, well maybe) that's just my opinion.

For the past few days I have been pulling my hair out because the database Thingamablog uses was corrupted. I had looked online and in Thingamablogs Forum for answers to no avail. I was worried that I was going to loose the whole kit and kaboodle.

Bummer dude!

Luckily, I happened to check my backups from last week and found a good database to replace the corrupt one with.

So, a word of caution, it appears a few others out there have had the same problem, my best advice, backup your data. You never know when it might come in handy.

Finally made good use of the single speed bike Sunday. I took off the studded tires, slapped some slicks on it and took her for a hour and half cruise. I just went out east Highline trail for about 10 miles. I had never been out that way and it proved to be a nice little pedal. Luckily I came across this painted on the path and thus knew which way to go!

Along the way you go through this neat little retiree community with these cool handpainted signs:

A fun day in the sun after a rainy Saturday.

With Dubba using an iPod now, I guess it's time to move onto some other coolness of electronics. Man could you image what would have happened it George the First had showed up at a Dead show. What would all the Deadheads have done?

What do you thinks on Dubba's iPod anyway? Hard to imagine what POTUS would listen to. Well, this one at least.

For the second day in a row, I have seen a school bus in an accident on my bike ride in the afternoon.

I guess I will stay off school buses for awhile!

Is bottled water just a clever marketing ploy?

Have you ever noticed that Evian is naive spelled backwards?

Hunter S. Thompson - 1937-2005

Hunter has left this mortal world as of yesterday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I can only guess he was in ill health and didn't want to suffer. He is one person I could see taking the quick way out.

I was introduce to "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" a good 20 years ago while I was going to culinary school. I rapidly read the rest of his books and kept up with the new ones as they came out. At the time I never figured I would be privilaged to actually meet the man.

I ran into him quite a few times in the Aspen area. A couple of those times I was lucky to have actually had a conversation with him - that is, as much of a conversation you could have with him! There where definitely a few occasions that I will never forget. I can't share them here, but trust me, they where good times!

Anyway, I hope you found a better place Hunter.

We will miss you!

Rest in Peace.

-- updated: 8:23pm --

Statement released by Hunter S. Thompson's wife, Anita, and son, Juan, to the Aspen Daily News:

"On Feb. 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado. The family will provide more information about memorial service and media contacts shortly. Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family. He stomped terra."

-- updated: 9:00pm --

Some HST quotes:

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

The person who doesn't scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs.

A word to the wise is infuriating.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order till we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Here are a few articles dealing with Social Security and what Sweden and Chile have learned from privitization:

• Sweden's Take on Private Pensions by Alan Cowell, New York Times
• The Chilean Plan is Working by Bill Steigerwald, Pittsburg Tribune Review
• A Personal Burden by Marla Dickerson, L.A. Times

Over all here is my take on the Social Security issue:

By conservative estimates Social Security will take in only enough money to cover 3/4's of its obligations in 2042 (I'll be almost 80 by then and either to senile to care or wondering if my next check will bounce!). Bush is pushing for workers to put some of there money in private accounts. Privatization does nothing to address the shortfall and may even hinder it further. There are really only two choices for keeping Social Security solvent: either lower benefits or raise taxes. And, trust me on this, neither political party wants to mention either one of those choices. With Bush just talking about private accounts, and really not discussing how to fix Social Security, he is forcing the Democrats to bring up how to actually fix Social Security and mention one of the two choices. Thus, he can then blame them for wanting to lower benefits or raise taxes.

Pretty slick Dubya, pretty slick.

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

Man, this weather here in the Denver area is just unbelievable. For like a week now, most days have been sunny and in the 60's! Talk about nice riding weather, it has been sweet!

The daily commutes have been rather nice. Not frigid in the morning and short weather in the afternoon. It makes riding the bike to work very enjoyable.

Yesterday I was out riding around Cherry Creek Reservoir and Cherry Creek Trail with about a million other people. OK, maybe not quite that many, but you get the point. The trails where a traffic jam of riders, skaters and walkers. It was almost frustrating to a point, I guess I just go to fast ;)

Unfortunately, it looks like we will only have a few more days of this 60 degree weather before things change for the worse. Well, it has been fun while it has lasted!

- Paul Conrad - 12/30/2004

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I was born not quite a month before JKF was assassinated.

This was many years before my consciousness of the world, and then, another many more before I really cared.

Yet, for some reason I can not explain, I feel a stronger belief in JFK than GWB.

Some will say that is right, some will say that is wrong.

I do not know.

All I know, whether I am right or wrong, the voicing of my opinion makes me patriotic.

6.3 Billion: Number of barrels of oil expected to be recovered from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if drilling is approved there. That's worth more than $30 billions to companies after development costs, taxes and royalties. And that's a conservative tally; some estimates range as high as 16 billion barrels.

1 cent: Estimated drop in the price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump in the U.S. due to drilling in the refuge, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Source: Bloomberg News

Kind of makes you wonder why President Bush is so eager to let the oil industry pillage our protected lands. Who is he really thinking about, us or big business? Makes for a pretty easy question!

Stuart Carlson - 11/22/2004

Yep, I guess hockey would be less violent, especially now that the NHL isn't playing.

At least here in Denver, Altitude Sports channel is showing "Classic" Avalanche games on weekends.

What I really need to do is get by butt to a Denver Pioneer game. College hockey, now that is a good game!

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.

I recently took some time off for a vacation, hence why there are no recent posts.

I spent a bit of time taking in the colors, snow and rain in the Kremmling/Steamboat Springs area. I didn't get much riding in, it was pretty sloppy most of the time, but I did get some decent photos while I was up there.

I recently purchased an Olympus Stylus 300 and took it up with me to see how it would do. I was able to take some decent photos with it, but had problems getting consistent light conditions on the images. Something to continue playing with.

The Photos

After being rather productive all day, I sat down to a retrospective evening watching the PBS program American Experience and their documetary "The Center of the World".

The eighth episode of filmmaker Ric Burns' award-winning series New York: A Documentary Film examines the rise and fall of the World Trade Center -- from its conception in the post-World War II economic boom, through its controversial construction in the 1960s and 1970s, to its tragic demise in the fall of 2001 and extraordinary response of the city in its aftermath.

Mario Cuomo (Governor, 1983-1994) ends the program with these comments:

I would like to see some depiction of all the religions list them all: atheism, ethical humanism, Catholicism, etc., etc. All of them. And you notice that each of those religions, these value systems, have two principles they share in common. And the two principles started with monotheism and the Jews: tzedakah and tikkun olam. [Tzedakah] means generally: we must treat one another as brother and sister. We should show one another respect and dignity, because we are like things. We are human beings in a world that has nothing else like us. And we ought to treat one another with love, charity-use your own words. And the second principle is: Well, what do you do with this relationship? Well, we don't know exactly how we got here, why we got here, etc., etc. That's for minds larger than ours. But we know that we are like kinds, and we should work together to make this as good an experience as possible. Tikkun Olam -- let us repair the universe. Now Islam believes that. Buddhism that has no god believes it. Every ethical humanist I ever met believes it. Those two principles: we're supposed to love one another and we're supposed to work together to make the experience better. That's all the religion you need, really, to make a success of this planet. And I'd like to see that in 9/11 somewhere. I'd like to see that captured somehow.

Something to sit down and think about for a while.

This morning I spent some time wandering around the web site for the program. There is quite a bit of information through out the site and would suggest to those who are interested to visit it and think about how that day in our recent past has changed us. Something else to think about, is, have we learned anything from the lessons it taught us? Are we better human beings, the same or worse?

A list of those who perished: 9.11.2001.html

I think another good nights sleep tonight and I will fully recover from this past Labor Day weekend!

I had some serious fun for a few days there. I put in some good rides during the day and caught some good tunes at night.

The big ride of the weekend was on Monday. We hit the Mount Falcon - Lair o' the Bear loop. Mount Falcon was a bit tougher than the last time I rode it (May of this year). I started off strong and then about a third of the way up I ran into some difficulty. I just wasn't feeling well for almost the rest of the climb. Fortunately, I was able to recover before the end of the climb and the rest of the ride went off with no problems. The ride is just under 20 miles and I completed it in 2:15 (About 8 minutes longer than my May time). I did the climb to the gazebo in about 48 minutes. Not bad, but I want to go tackle it again, hopefully the next time with no hiccups.

I caught a couple of nights of music at the Taste of Colorado. Sunday night was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Monday was Little Feat. BBVD was good but I was really into the Little Feat show. They put on a good show with the final 45 minutes containing quite a bit of good jamming. You have to love old guys that can rock n roll.

I had some fun wandering around checking out all the tents for those two evenings. There where some cool little stands tucked here and there. It is kind of funny though, I was at the Taste of Colorado but didn't eat a lick of food. Well I did have a piece of Cheese Cake on Monday, but I didn't purchase it. I did purchase a few beers along the way. OK, quite a few. Tuesday was a bit blurry to start with. The bike commute to work did clear out the brain a little bit, enough to make it through work at least.

I think I needed a weekend to recover from my weekend ;)

Well the Pyrenees are finally here. These next two days at the tour shall be interesting to watch, that is for sure. Does Lance still have it? Can his team give him the support that he needs? Will Jan or Tyler or somebody else finally upset him? Time can only tell.

I have the VCR going and can't wait to get home tonight and watch the results. I am just having problems watching OLN's primetime coverage will Al and Bob. Phil and Bob, I feel, do such a better job of commentating on the race.

Go Lance!

There are just a mere 6 days left till the Tour de France is once again upon us. I am eagerly awaiting to start so I can see what the outcome will be on the 25th of July. I can't wait to see if the alpha dog can put on a 6th consecutive Maillot Jaune in Paris.

USPS Team Roster (aka: Armstrong's Army)
Lance Armstrong - America
George Hincapie - the only rider to have ridden with Armstrong in all of his Tour victories - America
Floyd Landis - America
Viatcheslav Ekimov - Russia
Pavel Padrnos - Czech Republic
Jose Azevedo - Portugal
Manuel Beltran - Spain
Jose Luis Rubiera - Spain
Benjamin Noval - Spain

Hincapie, Padrnos and Ekimov will be expected to protect Armstrong in the long flat stages that dominate the opening week of racing while, Azevedo, Beltran and Rubiera are key mountain men.

Interestingly, team director Johan Bruyneel left Victor Hugo Pena (Columbia) off the team, who rode with Armstrong last year and briefly held the maillot juane. Luxembourg's Benoit Joachim , a 2003 team member, was also left off the team.

Armstrong is quoted in a team press release as saying, "Basically, we have the same team as the other years. We have a very experienced team and more than anything else, we have a very committed team. They know what it takes to win the Tour and they want to do that again."

Some recent and interesting updates:
- David Millar will miss the Tour de France because of a doping investigation.
- Joseba Beloki will not ride in this year's Tour de France after leaving his French team.
- Alexandre Vinokourov, third in the 2003 Tour de France, will miss this year's race.

Armstongs top rival, once again, will be Jan Ullrich, who recently won the Tour of Switzerland. Definitely in the hunt will be Tyler Hamilton, now riding with Phonak, who came in second to Iban Mayo in the Dauphine Libere. Mayo is a possible contender himself.

It's sunny today. Woohoo!

It has been rainy/cloudy around here for 6 or so days and I am getting really tired of riding in the rain everyday. I needed a break from cleaning the bike every single day. The poor thing was getting hammered on a daily basis and it was not very happy about it. The back end was really starting to make some strange, kind of scarry noises there for a while. Once I was able to get the bike good and clean they have seemed to go away. I am still kind of nervous about the whole thing.

I road almost 60 miles on Sunday (see log). My legs where feeling pretty tired there towards the end. The reason I bring this up, I have been thinking I want to do a century ride this summer. But after the ride on Sunday, I am not really sure I am quite ready to. If I would have had to ride another 40 miles and I doubt I would have made it. I guess I will just have to keep up the training. I have started spinning on the way to work and back, we shall see it that helps at all.

Finally, yesterday I was perusing around the Bontrager site and found this page with articles by Keith Bontrager. He definitly has some interesting things to say about this, that and the other thing. (this is where I got the idea to try spinning for a while)

At this point I have had enough of this change in the weather. Two days ago the change from hot, sunny days to rain was a nice change. Today, after three days of rain, I am ready to see the sun again. I know the plants are living in shear happiness, but at some point they will need the sun again for a little photosynthesis. It seems everyone is starting to get tired and depressed, nerves are a tad on edge. I am not sure how people in parts of Washington, Oregon and England can take this much cloudy rainy days. Well, maybe I am just a wimp.

I guess I could compain that since the weekend is now upon us I won't be able to go mountain biking. Yes, I suppose I could go riding anyway. Many moons ago I would probably have been into it, but I am not that much into mud anymore.
Bring me some sun, please.

I think there is a hint of truth in this one.



- Citizen Dog by Mark O'Hare

Speaking of TV ;) , I watched a good movie last night on HBO, "Something the Lord Made". It is the true, interesting story of two men, Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas - an ambitious white surgeon and a gifted black carpenter turned lab technician - who defied the racial strictures of the Jim Crow South and together pioneered the field of heart surgery. After watching it I spent some time cruising the web to find more of the history behind the story. There is not a whole lot, but I did find some in-depth information. It's out there if you wish to find it.

During the week I push myself out of bed around 5 each morning. This is not necessary a bad thing, but not always fun. Though, every once in a while it does have benefits, such as this morning.

If you where up maybe you saw the moon. Man, it was just hanging in the western sky, big as ever. It was just glowing with a big ol' halo around it. There where lots of cool looking clouds all keeping it company in the sky, many of them touched with colors by the rising sun. It made for a nice view while enjoying those first sips of coffee.

Hope you caught some of it.

I am finally catching up from going up to Kremmling for Memorial Day weekend. I was hoping to get some mountain bike riding in, but the weather failed to come through. It was very windy and we had snow flurries most of the time. Not the best riding weather!

Sunday we did manage to get over to Steamboat Springs to do a little window shopping. I hadn't stopping in the town for quite a few years, so it was kind of fun to wander around for a while. We didn't get up to the village but did stop by F. M. Light and Sons store. You know, we just had to after seeing all those yellow signs! (Which happen to be considered historic and are all numbered and registered with the State of Colorado!)

Monday we stopped by Grand Lake on the way back to Denver. There is a Peruvian/Mexican restaurant on the main street that I would not suggest you visit. It just wasn't very good. You live and learn.

Just outside of Denver is Idaho Springs where we stopped at the Tommyknocker Brewery for a killer deal on some fresh brewed beer. We should have waited and eaten here!

Over all it was not that bad of a weekend. I just wish we could have gone riding. I could have but I just wussed out. It was interesting how quite all the roads where. On Monday when we came back Winterpark was empty and there really was not that much traffic at all. It must have been the gas prices, at least that is my guess.

Stressed is desserts spelled backwards.

Coincidence?

I think not!

- Author Unknown

I am finding it is getting harder to sit down at the computer and take the time to go through emails, post to the blog or wander the internet. As the weather has become nicer I find myself wanting to spend more and more time outside. It is good because I am reading books more and just spending time with nature. It is bad because I find I am not keeping up with current events as much as I wish.

It is a catch-22 that I wish to figure out a solution for. The time I do spend going through emails, it is to delete newsletters from such places as BBC, Washington Post and NYT because there are so many that I haven't read. I usually read them in the morning before I ride to work, but as I do more during the day I find myself sleeping in later and not getting up in time to read them.

Overall, this is not a bad place to be. There are many people out there who never make it outside during the day. I just feel I am out of touch with what is happening in the world and that kind of makes me uneasy.

Man had it been windy here in Denver for the last two days. The bike rides have been interesting, that is for sure. Saw this Calvin and Hobbes and just had to post it.

Update!:
I found this website today with this description:

Visualize Snoopy of Peanuts fame, sitting on the Roof of his Doghouse, and with his typewriter, pounding out the following Message: “Dear IRS, I’m writing to you to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing list.”

The extremely curious part is that, apparently, a large percentage of former taxpayers have done precisely as Snoopy was attempting to do. Only their paperwork was far more legalistic. The best part is that there is allegedly a process by which an individual, aka a human being, can in fact remove themselves from the IRS list of taxpayers. This is one of those areas where anyone who considers this must do their own research, assume their own responsibility for any subsequent actions, and then abide by the outcomes.

Check it out:
http://www.halexandria.org/dward292.htm

Want to know what was said yesterday?

Go here and convert the message:
http://nickciske.com/tools/binary.php

Did you catch this past weeks The Boondocks by Aaron McGruder? Man was it a good series.

It started last Sunday with the Geico gag and then went with the new slogan of "isn't almost good enough" for the Bush campaign. It definitely had me laughing all week.

If you missed it or want to see them again here they are, at least until someone finds out and has me take them down.

Enjoy!

Well I made the mistake of checking out MYIE2 on my computer for a few hours yesterday. Man did it mess up everything.

I found I didn't like it and uninstalled it. The problem was when it uninstalled it kept its fingers on the default browser setting, or something. IE6 wouldn't reset itself as my default browser. Thus, AI Roboform taskbar icon didn't work, I was having problems with email links, SETISpy wouldn't connect to check user stats, there was just all kind of issues. I had tried checking and unchecking the box for IE to check to see if it was the default browser to no avail. Nothing was working

I have been using Opera as a second browser and tried unloading that to no luck.

After seaching the internet for a couple hours I found a program called SetBrowser at http://www.pc-tools.net. It did the trick. So if you ever have the problem of IE not resetting itself to the default browser, go download this freeware and life should be just dandy again.

Moral of the story: I guess there is some option in MYIE2 to reset the browser to the original default, so either do that or just don't load MYIE2 on your computer. The choice is yours.

It is not already a requirement but Time Warner wants to go ahead and let law enforcement get access to what you and I do on the internet. What the FBI wants is incredably far reaching and privacy experts have quams about it..

Read the article:
http://news.com.com/2100-1034_3-5173320.html

I guess what Bush wants, Bush gets, to hell with us in the trenches I am waiting for the day when they start monitering my little site because I don't like what they are doing. I forsee a day when you have to watch what you say, much like a police state, or you could be put away as a enemy of the state with no rights what so ever. I hope not, but you never know.

I have to say I had a great weekend here in Colorado. Lots of sunshine with the tempurature tempered with some wind. I finally took the mountain bike out this weekend (hence the new photo up in the top right corner). First, though I took a good 30 mile road ride on Saturday on a loop around southern Denver. A nice ride for sure, but the climb back up Quincy through Cherry Creek Village from the Platte River was a bitch with the stong, steady head wind. Man where the quads screaming by the time I cranked up that. And, the biggest heartbreaker is, it is not a really steep climb, just steady. I hate those sometimes.

On Sunday a couple of buddies and I headed out to Green Mountain with the mountain bikes. Whew, I have to say that initial climb from the east parking lot was a shocker. The body really had no clue what in the world was going on. I hadn't been on that bike since some time last fall and even with the daily commuting to work and back every day, my lungs and legs where not quite ready for it. It took about a third of the climb for the body to adapt. There was some serious sucking of air there for a while not to mention some lactic acid build up in the legs.

I have to say we where not the only ones with this ride in mind. The park was packed with riders and the runners didn't seem to happy about this. The traffic on the trails was amazing. I don't think I have ever seen that many riders out there before and every time you passed a runner, boy did they seem pissed. Oh well, what are you going to do, not ride? I Don't think so.

In the mean time I can't wait for next weekend, the weather is suppose to be even better that this past weekend. Probably go hit at least one of those other trails on the front range.

Check this out. The Justice Department and FBI proposed that providers should be forced to provide access for FBI wiretaps and other electronic surveillance. And guess who they want to pay for it. That's right, the customer.

Experts say the proposal by the Justice Department, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration could require extensive retooling of existing broadband networks and could impose significant costs. Privacy advocates also argue that there are not enough safeguards to prevent the government from intercepting data from innocent users.

Check out the story on The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54512-2004Mar12.html

Hey all you readers out there in cyberspace. Just a reminder not to open unknown attachments. Twice today NAV has caught viruses trying to sneak in to my inbox. W32.Beagle.J and W32.Netsky.D where attached to emails sent to addresses on my website. An interesting development that I had not realized, they are out there scanning websites for email addresses and trying to attack them. I am not sure how they are doing this, but they are.

I for one keep my virus definitions up to date. I am also very aware of emails that arrive from addressees who I do not know. You just have to stay on your toes in this digital age.

Which begs the question, do you trust computer voting. I don't. They have enough problems with chads and such now, just wait till there are tampering programs developed for voting computers. I can't wait for some 15 year old in Bunkin, Wherever who is bored and looks to the voting computer system to elect the girl he has a crush on President of the United States. Won't that just impress her, let alone send the country into a constitutional tailspin for a while.

Just something to look forward to.

Here are three articles from this mornings Rocky Mountain News which I feel sum up most of my feelings about this past week and the NHL. Unfortunately I am feeling burned out on all the hoopla surrounding this latest episode with the hockey world because I don't feel there is going to be much change from the corporate offices.

• Hockey's image also suffers blow - Sport debates response, scrambles for answers in wake of Moore attack - Rick Sadowski
• That's the NHL's story - and they're sticking to it - Dave Krieger
• Ice of apathy encrusts hockey - Bernie Lincicome

Overall, it has been a sad state of affairs for the NHL, if you ask me.

Hmm. I have been thinking and writing trying to organize my thoughts on the decision by the NHL on Todd Bertuzzis suspension. Overall I am kind of disappointed in what they decided to do. I do not think it is fair to leave the suspension open ended like they did. I believe they should had made a firm decision and gone with it. Instead they left themselves open to wait and see how this all continues to play in the public arena then make a final decision based on how they think the politicalness of it will play. I see this as a side stepping maneuver by Gary Bettman and the NHL in general when I believe at this point they need to put there collective foot down on violence in the sport and take an intelligent step forward. What they ended up doing was sidestepping the bigger issue and taking a couple steps backward by ignoring the issue of the increase in violence in the league. Yes, their statement does say that this kind of behavoir is unacceptable, but it does not address what I believe to be the bigger issue of violence as a whole throughout the league. I honestly believe that what is unacceptable on the city street should be unacceptable on the professional ice rink. This is not boxing, this is hockey and what ever you may think, I don't believe they are compatible. Kids should not be watching the professionals in this sport taking vengeance on one another for what ever reason. They should not be seeing adults who are paid in some cases multi millions of dollars a year losing their cool and in most cases it be tossed off as an acceptable part of the game. This is just a GAME not some life or death struggle and it is about time the NHL realize this and demanded the actions of its players to treat it as such. But that's just my opinion, you as always are entitled to your own. (Well, at least until John Ashcroft takes it away, but that is a rant for another time.)

More articles about this incident:

• Text of the NHL announcement
• Code lets NHL play violently - Mark Kiszla - Denver Post
• Players say Bertuzzi's punishment fits the crime but doubt violence will stop - Bill Beacon - Canadian Press
• NHL leaves open possibility of Bertuzzi playing in World Cup of Hockey - Pierre Lebrun - Canadian Press
• Hockey is so sick it needs to sit out a season - Jefferey Simpson - The Globe and Mail
• Prime minister tells hockey to 'clean up your act' following Bertuzzi affair - Canadian Press
• Moore assault puts NHL fights in different light - Rick Morrissey - Chicago Tribune

One final quote that I think sums up the NHL's attitude towards violence:

"More often that not, the remarks in the heat of the moment dissipate by the time the actual game is played." He smiled then added "Although we still have two periods to play"
- Gary Bettman, March 3rd at the Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado during the Vancouver - Colorado game

Guess you missed that mark by a couple periods there Mr. Bettman. I have to say, that is one funny joke, you ever thought of being a comedian?

I watched the Bertuzzi news conference with interest last night. You could easily see the man was upset, but I am sorry, I don't feel bad for him. I feel bad for the man in the hospital for an indefinite stay. Hockey is the only professional sport I can think of, except boxing, where the players can lose their cool and duke it out. And, we as a civilization are suppose to accept this because it is part of it's history. Does this mean that Italians can open up the Colluseum and start matches to the death because it is part of their history? If any citizen in almost any country on this planet loses their cool and attacks another citizen are there not retributions? But not hockey, it's part of it's history. Another perfect example of how humans do not learn from history.

Here are two quotes that show what really is acceptable in hockey today:

"As NHL players, we get fired up and sometimes do stupid things on the ice," said Brendan Shanahan of the Red Wings.

"It's a very emotional game, and you can quickly lose your temper and lose your focus," said Wayne Gretzky.

At this point what ever Gary Bettman does, it will be a little to little and a little to late. He had the perfect time to say something about retaliation when he came to Denver and sat in a box with Peirre Lecroix for the last Vancouver game here. What did he say, nothing. When asked why he was here he said he was just in the neighborhood and stopped by. When asked why he was in the neighborhood he wouldn't say.

Did you realize fighting is up 26% this season? Did you know veiwership is going down? Gary Bettman and the rest of the hockey world is trying to sell hockey as a violent sport and it is not selling. The sad part is they do not realize this. And the really sad part is that even though there is a player in the hospital, what ever they do will not be enough to clean up the game and make it sell in the U.S. And until they can make it sell in the U.S., it will remain a minor sport here.

Finally, you have Colorado coach Tony Granato and his comments. Isn't it true there is a tape of him blatenly(?) swinging his stick into the head of another player? I wonder what he has to say about that?