Contextuals
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GOP Babes - its good to be a conservative.

The Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of 3 kindergartners who were suspended from school for playing cops & robbers on the playground.

3rd graders suspended for bringing guns to school - 2 inch long GI Joe action figure guns.

TurnItIn.com is a site used by some Canadian universities to verify that papers submitted by students are originally works and not snagged from somewhere else on the internet. One student fought the system and actually prevailed.

Here's an interesting anti-terrorism idea: Germany to use artificial fog to protect a nuclear power plant against terrorist attacks.

It looks like Long John Silvers is trying to cash in on the Mars expedition. They announced today that if NASA finds conclusive evidence of an ocean on Mars, that everyone in the U.S. gets one free "giant" shrimp on March 15. I've seen the shrimp at LJS, it's not "giant" by any means.

Ok, so that was a Little Richard song.... But has anyone checked out James Bown's mugshot? I think that he's trying to give Nick Nolte a run for his money.

Well, the Superbowl is almost here. Will you be watching Janet Jackson during the halftime show, or will you spring for the $19.95 pay per view event, the Lingerie Bowl?

Two things you definately won't be seeing at this year's Superbowl are the ads for Moveon and PETA. Both sites let you view the baned commercials and of course listen to them spout their propaganda.

UPDATE: GetSwank has the info and pictures of Janet Jackson's nipple.

I imagine that most of us have some sort of mild phobia (if you think you don't have one, be sure to visit The Phobia List to find yourself one). So, it's comforting to know that irrational beliefs can make some of the biggest Hollywood celebrities' skin crawl. I found it a little odd that Johnny Depp has a fear of clowns, but owns the "Pogo the Clown" painting by John Wayne Gacy. Creepy.

There's a quickie Kobe Bryant book coming out called Kobe Bryant: The Game of His Life. A summary of what all is included in the book can be found here.

Suprisingly, it actually includes an interview the writer did with the alleged victim. Thats not going to help her case any.

Although it's no white ghost, this article reminds me of the John Laroche orchid story in the movie, Adaptation. I wonder if this guy was going to smoke his orchid?

Jeez, the attack columns have definately shifted towards Kerry now that he's won the 1st two primaries. This is an awfully hateful column. Michelle could at least wait for Kerry's wife to interject herself into this race before trashing her.

The odds of getting struck by lightening is 1:600,000, but this guy has really redefined the odds. He's been struck by lightening not once, not twice, but four times. I would say he should go out and buy a lottery ticket, but he would probably wind up like this man.

I've never been much for Sci Fi (o.k. when I was a kid, I loved Star Trek, but who didn't?), but it looks as if the Sci Fi channel has come up with a couple of shows worth checking out. Fans of Tripping the Rift will be happy to know that the series premiere is on March 4. They are also trying out their own brand of "reality" television with Mad Mad House. From what I've gathered, they take "average" people and put them in the same house as a nudist, a vampire, a witch and put them all through some Fear Factor type challenges.

Al Franken - defender of free speech. As long as its speech he agrees with. Al Franken Knocks Down Dean Heckler. Nothing like resorting to violence when you don't get your way - or maybe this was just all a joke. He is a comedian, right?

The Global Warming boogaboos just keeps getting stranger and stranger - Scientists claim global warming will plunge Britian into an ice age within just a few decades. The reason, they think the gulf stream (which keeps Britian warm) is going to stop - much like it did 12,700 years ago. Of course, they throw in some blame for this happening - pollution of course - despite the fact that there was no pollution as it currently exists 12,700 years ago.

Mike Rowe - the guy who ran mikerowesoft.com has caved and cut a deal with Microsoft. Probably a smart move, but now we'll never know how it would have played out in court. Rowe gives up his domain name and ...

...Microsoft will pay for Rowe's expenses, the cost of switching over to a new site, provide training for certification on Microsoft's products, a subscription to Microsoft's developer program Web site, and an Xbox video game console with games, as well as an invitation to bring his parents along for a visit to Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, headquarters for an annual technology fair.

He's back on the Saddam issue, and he just sounds lame.

"You can say that it's great that Saddam is gone and I'm sure that a lot of Iraqis feel it is great that Saddam is gone," said the former Vermont governor, an unflinching critic of the war against Iraq. "But a lot of them gave their lives. And their living standard is a whole lot worse now than it was before."

As Dean fully well knows, a whole lot more of them gave their lives over the past 20 years keeping Saddam in power - the mass graves are evidence enough of that.

The 'standard of living' crack is just ridiculous. If this were WW2, he might as well have just said - but at least Hitler made the trains run on time.

Dean's finished on a national level as a serious candidate. Hopefully the Dems in New Hampshire agree so he can stop embarrassing himself.

UPDATE: An Iraqi blogger replies to Dean. Its harsh.

People have been making slippery slope arguments for years, but this is the 1st time I've seen it actually played out - John Harris, a member of the Human Genetics Commission, told a meeting at Westminster he did not see any distinction between aborting a fully grown unborn baby at 40 weeks and killing a child after it had been born. All I can say, it at least this idea is in the UK and not here ... yet.

Keyshawn Johnson's life just keeps getting weirder. 1st, he was deactivated by the Bucs, then he got mugged, and now a judge has issued a restraining order against him after he repeatedly threatened a man who's having sex with his ex-wife. Does the phrase 'Throw it all away' mean anything to you Key? The last 90 days of you life have been shit.

Hmm, there's a whole movement afoot to Save Surge - the Mountain Dew clone.

Remember those cool ads for X-Ray vision goggles you could find in the back of comic books? Well, this 16 year-old claims to have X-Ray vision without them.

With campaign finance proposals like this:

Dean said for every $100 that someone donates to a presidential campaign, the government should match it with $500 and give the donor a $100 tax credit.

its no wonder Dean is on his way out.

Maybe John Kerry actually has a chance at being President - he at least looks the part. Or am I the only one that he reminds of Andrew Jackson?

The George Bush conspiracy generator. [via The Corner.

Students get their free speech rights trampled on. More here.

I wish I had seen this article about XP's support for ad hoc wireless networks without the need for a wireless router before I had went out and bought a my wireless setup. Though if you are only networking 2 machines - buying 2 wireless network cards is just as expensive as buying a router + 1 wireless network card.

Ok. So we just joined the technology revolution by going completely cellular. But now, I find out that I should be hating my new cell phone. According to the new MIT survey, 30% of people said that the cell phone was the most hated invention that they couldn't live without. I wonder if this number would increase if they were using the new Bone Phone instead?

EA has released Sim City Classic for online play - and its free. I heard next week, the source code for Pong is going to be released!

I mentioned it unspecifically earlier today, but my latest celeblog - Watching Michelle Wie - is now up and running.

UPDATE: The site is now dead (1-13-05)

There's a new Brain Terminal video up that was shot outside the auditorium where Gore gave his global warming speech. Good stuff, as always, from Evan.

Perpaps the fastest way to get a website indexed by Google - put Google Adsense text ads on it. I've got a new site thats in beta right now and Google sent a bot out to crawl it less than 20 minutes after I added the advertising to it. The site will go public sometime within the next 48 hours - its golf related so most of you won't give a rats ass.

ESPN launches Page 3. There's always more room for a sports/entertainment hybrid site - I just wonder why the hell they buried this in a directory rather than giving it its own domain or at least subdomain name.

Vote now! Who will Bush put into the 2004 Axis Of Evil?

When the judge throws out the lawsuit Microsoft is bringing against MikeRoweSoft.com (the kids name is really Mike Rowe and he does webdesign) - I hope he has the ability to make MS pay for Rowe's legal fees, and to also fine MS for wasting the court's time.

Get Swank has an interesting article about possible plans to study the reasons behind porn consumption in Europe (NSFW). The goal being to reduce/eliminate it thru better sex education - and to try and do anything possible to shut down existing porn business in the EU (ban their advertising - because its sexist, and keep them from getting capital by banning them from the stock exchanges). And I thought the USA was supposed to be prudish about sex compared to Europe. What gives?

You may not be sleeping alone tonight..... Yes, the saying is true, "Don't let the bedbugs bite." EUGH.

Well, I think the name of this website says it all.....PooPockets!

After the new year I managed to pack everyone off to work and school, dismantle the Christmas decorations, clean the house, and finish up all the laundry. So what's left for a girl to do? Find a new PS2 game, of course. This time around, I selected True Crime: Streets of LA (yes, all those commercials finally coaxed me into playing).

In this game, you play Nick Kang an undercover cop who takes on Russian and triad gangs, unravels the mystery of his father's disappearance, rescues a kidnapped brother, and of course saves civilians from disgruntled postal workers, fashion designers, drunk drivers, and domestic disputes. During the course of the game you get lots of opportunities to sharpen your driving, shooting and fighting skills and like most games of this type, the overall fate of your character is determined on how you interact with others (i.e. good cop or bad cop). The game plays really fast - most of the missions were very easy to complete (although, completing the missions are not necessary to procede through the game).

Overall, the game play is similar to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Both games have lots of driving involved, lots of fighting, shooting, and of course car jackings - but somehow, GTA just seems to pull off a better game.

We could all use some I Love Karl Rove wallpaper. Apparently the creator of that website was contacted by the Secret Service. That hardly seems necessary. Nobody that uses that much pink can have bad intentions.

I'm kind of suprised that the Blazers didn't trade Rasheed Wallace when they had the chance. Given that this is the last year of his contract, and the Blazers have as much as said there's no way they'll try and re-sign him (because of the image problems) - I figured they'd at least try and get something in return for him. But, apparently the owner wanted to free up additional room under the salary cap for an off-season move. It'll be interesting to see who they can sign with that money.

Dick LeBeau is coming back to the Steelers as Defensive Coordinator. Now, maybe the Steeler defense will start playing like ... well, a Steeler defense should. They haven't been able to rush the passer or defend in the secondary for 2 years now.

Al Gore apparently didn't read the Michael Crichton speech I linked to in early January. In a speech telling us all about the harm of global warming - while blaming it on wealthy right-wing idealogues and their oil, coal and mining industry buddies- Gore starts by saying this:

Gore: I am particularly concerned because the vast majority of the most respected environmental scientists from all over the world have sounded a clear and urgent alarm."

Just a reminder of what Crichton had to say about 'consensus science':

Crichton: I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.

Back to Gore. 5 sentences and a few pictures later, he lets loose with this:

Gore: I don�t think there is any longer a credible basis for doubting that the earth�s atmosphere is heating up because of global warming.

So the evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.

There's just no arguing with that, now is there? Its consensus science and Gore doesn't doubt it - so clearly the evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.

Jeez, what a hack.

The American Airlines pilot who flipped off a Brazilian official during his fingerprinting upon arrival in Brazil has agreed to pay a $17,000 fine to avoid possible jail time. $17,000 for flipping off a security official!

Its just getting started, but here's an AskMefi thread about good DVD ripping software. I've ripped 1 DVD ever and it took me about 2 hours and I could never get the sound to work. That pretty much explains why I've never done it again. Maybe there will be some good suggestions in this thread that'll be easier and more successful than what I've already tried.

The internet helped build up Howard Deans power base, and now it may be his undoing. He's not toast yet, but he's slipping fast.

What ever happened to making a prison punishment? Sure, prisioners should have their basic rights met (food, shelter, sleep, access to a toilet and shower), but why in the world should we turn prison into a school, home gym, cable television connected protect their right to run a website and call it free speech "fraternity\sorority"? It appears that a number of death row inmates (and I am sure non-death row inmates as well) run websites that display their artwork, letters, and even stories of how they committed their murders.

Give me a break, no one is really being rehabilitated by giving them access to these things. And there is no reason to stay out of jail if you get 3 squares a day and a better living space than what you may have had prior to landing in the big house.

What in the hell has happened to Boy George? Not like the man ever looked great, but at least he looked human. With the painted on "hair" and the Joker smile, he's begining to look like a walking kabuki mask.

The following is a paid political ad brought to you by the kooks at MoveOn.org:

Its like, we don't even like that bastard Bush ... or whatever his name is. He's like, selected instead of elected. Republicans are so stupid.

OK, they didn't really say that stupid stuff. Its actually a little less highbrow than I've presented it here. The Drudge 'transcript' thats linked above is hilarious. The more the Left relies on this group of people to be their public face, the worse they continue to look.

The trailer for Johnny Depp's latest - Secret Window is up. Like many of his films, it looks like it ought to be pretty good.

I'm also intrigued to see how The Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher turns out. If it wasn't Kutcher, I'd be excited to see it (kind of gives me a Mothman Prophecies feel) - but with him, you just never know. The story line has some real potential though.

After switching clubs twice in the last two years and chewing thru 3 different caddies last year, Colin Montgomerie (who hasn't won in almost 3 years) is switching clubs again for 2004. Say it with me ... desperation. No doubt David Duval won't be far behind.

Wow. For all the harsh headlines about Bush recently attributed to Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, this transcript from the Today show comes as quite a shocker. He pretty much deflates much of what was being attributed to him. Then there's this:

COURIC: Very quickly, will you vote for President Bush in November?
O'NEILL: Probably. I don't see anybody that strikes me as better prepared and more capable. But I really do think we have a bipartisan problem of a broken political process, and I think the American people need to demand more of people who would be their leaders.

I like my coffee, but this guy takes the cake. Meet Winter. His goal in life is to visit every Starbucks in the world. Currently, he's been to 3751 stores in North America alone. Maybe he should try the Seattle Signature Steak - a filet mignon dredged in Starbucks espresso.

A little too involved with Lord of the Rings: 1 | 2 | 3.

Way, way too involved with LOTR: Dressing up as Gollum.

Every highschool guy's nightmare prom date.

I didn't think it was possible for anyone to naturally look like "Cat Lady," Jocelyne Wildenstein. However, actress Karen Black could pass as her identical twin. Apparently Ms. Black appears in quite a few horror movies such as Children of the Corn IV and House of 1,000 Corpses which offically makes her scarier than the films she appears in.

Spent all of yesterday out in the garage building some heavy-duty shelves. I bought myself a circular saw a couple of weeks ago and built myself a workbench. Before that workbench, the last thing I built with wood was a 30"x30" shelf back in 7th grade shop class.

The shelves I built yesterday is 60" wide, 25" deep and 8" tall. My master plan is to build 3 more units just like that one to finally get my garage organized. We've been in this house for 3 years now and the garage has been a disaster that whole time. I'll post some pictures once I get all the units done.

Two 7th grade girls were 'expelled' for charging other students $5 to watch them kiss each other. I'd have probably paid for that as a 7th grader. Just as a topper, they claim they got the idea after seeing Britney kiss Madonna on the MTV VMA's.

In Seattle, some schools have prohibited kids from making and throwing snowballs, and in some instances - they aren't even allowed to touch the snow. Also, a kid was suspended for 5 days after bringing Gas-X to school.

The district's superintendent, Sue Cleveland, says the drug might seem innocuous, but there are dangers of allowing students to carry around their own medication.

Yes, but Beano isn't one of the drugs that cause the danger. This is no good either.

And I thought Rowan Atkinson was sulking in some depression clinic in Arizona: Atkinson denies he's been cast as Lord Voldemort in the next Harry Potter movie.

Former Husker Trev Alberts is claiming to be thrilled that Nebraska has hired ex-Raider coach Bill Callahan to run their football program. I think its a horrible hire for Nebraska. Callahan took a great Raiders team, and rode John Gruden's system all the way to the Superbowl, thats worth something. But when Callahan then chaged the system to run his way the next year, well ... he's not coaching the Raiders anymore, so we know how that turned out.

Maybe he'll do better in college than he did on his own in the NFL, but I doubt it. And if I'm right, then Nebraska's football program hasn't even seen the beginning of the mediocrity they will slip into.

With the whole I lost my winning lottery ticket business predictably ending up being a lie, I'd like to see more than just the police charging her with filing a false police report. I'd like to see the name of the attorney she used to file her lawsuit made public. Attorney's who deal in frivolous or fraudulent lawsuits ought to have their names outed - whether it was their fault or not. If the attorney just plain got duped along with lots of other people, they ought to have no problem making that argument to the public.

UPDATE: Her lawyer's name is Sheldon Starke - there's even a picture of him at this link. If you are looking for an attorney in Ohio - avoid this guy like the plague.

GetSwank wonders what'll become of the

What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas.

motto now that it didn't quite work out that way for Britney Spears.

Memo to the MPAA regarding illegal downloads of movies.

Amazon's top 100 DVDs of 2003 list. The Customer's top 100 DVDs of 2003 list is a much better list from my perspective.

The Holocausts of Communism Test. The questions are very specific, but I only got 25% correct. My latest Amazon order from earlier this week ought to help bring that score up. I ordered a few books on Soviet history from Lenin thru WW2.

One good thing about this quiz, is that in addition to explaining the correct answers after you are finished, it provides recommended source material if you want to find out more. Considering I've delved into Soviet history somewhat heavily over the past couple of weeks, I now have 15 more books to buy.

Had the Cox cable guy out at my house this morning to try and figure out why I'm suddenly dropping packets all over the place - anywhere from 12-40% over the last couple of days. After about an hour of testing all sorts of possibilities, it turns out that it was my 3-year-old Toshiba modem. We plugged in a new Motorola Surfboard and everything worked like a charm.

A public school's teachers and administration refuse to protect a kid from threats of violence and physical intimidation because they don't like his politics. Now, his principal and the campus security officer have advised him to stay home for a few days. I guess the ida of having the kids doing the threatening stay home a few days (suspension) hasn't popped into their heads yet. Suprising, considering their apparently isn't much in there getting in the way.

Some things I didn't know about past Presidential elections:

In 1824, Andrew Jackson won 44% of the popular vote in a 4-man race, and won the most Electoral College votes. John Quincy Adams won only 30% of the popular vote, and was second in the Electoral College vote. But Adams was elected president by the House of Representatives, since no candidate had won a majority of the Electoral College vote.

In both the 1876 and 1888 elections, the eventual Electoral College and presidential winner was also the popular vote loser. In 1876, the popular vote winner, Samuel Tilden, defeated Rutherford B. Hayes by 3% in the popular vote, but a commission awarded all disputed electoral votes to Hayes, giving him a one vote Electoral College victory. In 1888, President Grover Cleveland won the popular vote by just under 1% over Benjamin Harrison, but lost the Electoral College vote to Harrison decisively, and so the presidency.

PETA sent that German cannibal guy a 'Christmas' present - a vegetarian cookbook.

Technology Is Making Queers Of Us All:

The gay movement offers insights and allies for the subversive transhumanist future.

I don't even know what that means, but it sounds interesting. The same site also has an article entitled, Building A Home For Immortals.

Its good to see that at least somebody is criticizing MoveOn.org for putting up 2 Bush=Hitler ads as part of their Bush In 30 Seconds campaign. I suspect this incident is going to be used (properly so) to taint their other messages thru the 2004 election.

Oh, and Bush is popular because people are stupid. The Dems sure are making good arguments - for the other side.

Ah, and another Bush=Hitler sighting. And another and another.

Michael Crichton has a great speech about how science is letting us down on his website. The damn thing is huge, but its a great read and puts a pretty wrapper on most of the 'junk science' complaints you see. A must read. [link via IP]

It just keeps getting worse for Dean. Despite being a fantastic fundraiser, he's beginning to look a bit inept at actual politics on the national scale. From the same article, here's first a Dean quote from some Wisconsin newspaper about the other Dem candidates:

"Nobody else comes from a farm state"

Vermont has 6,600 farms, Missouri has 110,000 (Gephardt). Vermont is actually 7th on the list of the 9 states the Dem candidates come from for # of farms.

Then there's this doozy from a Dean supporter (the article also includes an Al Gore connection here) regarding John Kerry and flood relief.

"Bill Bradley (Al Gore's main opponent) opposed important flood relief that would have made a world of difference to farmers like me. Now, four years later, we again have a Democrat U.S. senator from an industrial state running for president in Iowa who voted against the very same flood relief legislation that would have benefited rural Iowans," Peterson said in a written statement.

The problem is that John Kerry actually didn't vote against that flood relief legistlation, he voted for it.

If Dean keeps talking about race like this he won't be the front-runner for long.

"Dealing with race is about educating white folks. Not because white people are worse than black people about race but because whites are in the majority, and therefore the behavior of whites has a much bigger influence on hiring practices and so forth and so on than the behavior of African-Americans."

Thats the same kind of thinking that says that blacks can't be racists. That ought to go over well with those pick-up truck driving, confederate flag toting southern voters Dean said he wants to woo. Mickey Kaus is more harsh than me about this:

Dean's comment would be more depressing if weren't also the sort of cluelessly pre-Clinton utterance that virtually guarantees he will never be president.

Wacko alert. All the bad things you've ever heard about the Soviet Union - they were all lies. Uh huh, sure they were.

All these flight cancellations have really got me worried. It would appear that our government knows something pretty specific about a pending attack, yet they haven't made any arrests (or at least haven't announced any). I've got to believe that these cancellations can't just go on forever without any arrests being made. Its going to begin scaring passengers to the point that people will stop flying again.