Why yes she is buzzing like a neon sign. Why do you ask?

SOME of Olivia'as loot

What you can't see is the glitter in her hair and pink eyeshadow. This outfit was a surprise for her. She was about to burst when I pulled it out after applying her makeup and glitter.

The election is less than a week away, and, to paraphrase a fictional democratic strategist, the other side "can't put a forkful of waffles in our mouth without coughing up the ball."

Oh be quiet. I don't take it that seriously either. It just seems symptomatic of the Democratic party of the past twenty years that when they have the prize in sight, indeed even after they've caught it, they don't seem to know exactly what to do with it.

That brown thing? You know, the one you just caught? You're supposed to hang on to it. I mean, if you want to hand it to us, we'll sure take it. It's not the way I'd want to score a touchdown, but points is points.

Will it change anything? Oh, probably not. But there's nothing like a major player from the other side stepping on their crank in public to bring that last bit of fizz to the fun.

See You Next Tuesday.

Looks like our Bahraini friend Mahmood has got himself into a spot of trouble:

Bahrain has blocked several Web sites for violating a reporting ban in the case of a government adviser who was deported after alleging election irregularities.
...
Among the blocked Web sites was popular Bahraini blog www.mahmood.tv which is often a forum for political debate and government criticism. It re-opened under www.alyousif.tv, with a photograph of site owner Mahmood al-Yousif wearing a gag.

Messing around with someone who has a megaphone and the balls smarts to use it is usually not the most productive use of one's time. Then again, governments tend to have a lot of time and quite a bit more power than they should. Here's to hoping this all ends up for the best!

Someone should make a movie about this. Reeks of urban legend, but a guy on Fark actually lives in that town and says the story's all over the local papers. SpOoKy!

It's a Jihad, Charlie Brown! Tasteless, crass, and violent. Also damned funny and appropriate. Well, sort of.

Via Instapundit.

Ron gets a spectacular no-prize for bringing us this MSNBC slide show of recently-made astronomical pictures. The show includes several pictures from the newly operational Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as one very cool picture made by an amateur astronomer.

I'd always read that Monty Python member Graham Chapman's memorial service was very well done and, to be blunt, freaking hilarious. Now I have proof. Looks like it was re-packaged into some form of broadcast special, but this may simply have been for the people attending.

And when did 1989 become 16 years ago?!?

The Washington Post today carried this article detailing a research project involving Indian elephants and a mirror. By placing a solidly elephant-proof mirror in their enclosure, scientists recorded convincing behavior that indicates the elephants were quite aware they were seeing themselves. This puts them in a rarified league occupied by humans, apes, and (perhaps) dolphins.

The on-line article includes a great video with excerpts of the observed behavior.

The best part about televised sports is when the B team gets hold of the microphones. Actually, I'm not sure these guys are even B team. Reminds me of the regional sportscasts we used to get when I was a kid. The commentators were so awful we usually turned the sound down and listened to the radio announcers call the same game.

Update: Linkee now workee.

Also from Slashdot, the latest news on Halo-3. Depending on the price, that edition with the helmet sounds mighty tempting. Hey, if you're going to be geeky and play video games in the basement, why not go all the way?

The real question for me is, can I really justify buying a whole X-box 360 for just one game. One of those, "your money or your life?" dilemmas.

I'm thinking! I'm thinking!

Countercolumn:

The bottom line: Liberals are avoiding us because of our positions, which are in and of themselves evil (to them), while we're avoiding engaging with them because of their behavior.

They object to our beliefs. We simply object to them being assholes.

Read the linked article for some really unintentionally funny examples of just how wacky people can get about politics.

No, I'm not talking about you.

Mark gets a no-prize with a jeweler's loop for explaining to us why anyone in their right mind would pay 15 grand for a single penny. His answer, found in total below, could best be summarized as "they're nuts. Rich nuts."

This is an ordinary 2003 cent. They made 3.3 billion of them in Philadelphia that year (and even MORE in Denver!).

The difference here is that this coin was graded by a professional coin-grading firm as being Mint State 70.

The term means that this particular 2003 cent is absolutely flawless. No nicks, no scratches, no bizarre discoloration, with full details..and absolutely no wear of any kind. Since coins are struck and then dumped into a hopper raw, it is almost inevitable that there would be some damage done to them in the manufacturing process, even though the coins are technically uncirculated until they actually enter commerce. So truly flawless examples of any coin intended for circulation are bound to pretty rare.

But the more important question, and I think that's what's really on your mind here, is why would someone pay effectively 1.5 million times the value of an MS-65 cent (also uncirculated, but with less-than-normal level of nicks, scratches, etc.)? You may well ask.

And well you should.

I think for the reason that they have more money than they know what to do with, and/or want to be able to say to their other coin-geek buddies (and y'all think I'm bad and out-of-control! Trust me...you have no idea!) that they have the top of the heap (so to speak) with regard to 2003 cents.

Insane.

I don't care if they ever build it, this "superyacht" is still damned nifty-looking. And since it'll most likely cost five or six times what my house does, my admiration will therefore be from afar.

Ellen, as always, will try to figure out where to put cat boxes.

I've read many times over the years that the success or failure of the Euro is not dependent on Germany or France, rather it hinges on places like Italy and eastern Europe. Looks like those predictions are finally coming true, and the story isn't looking good. Of course, people have been predicting these problems since even before the Euro was adopted, and they're only now coming to light. And the people who predicted trouble for less-efficient economies who adopted the Euro also predicted the only way the Euro will fail outright is if such an outcome fits the interests of Germany or France. That remains to be seen.

Having the only internationally viable alternative to the dollar come apart like an unbalanced washing machine will have profound and unpredictable consequences for global commerce. This may not sound like it will affect you, but trust me it will.

But it will affect places like China and Saudi Arabia faster.

Interesting times, interesting times...

Via Instapundit.

Slashdot linked up an innovative use of motion-capture technology. While using pens to "draw" 3-D objects in the air is interesting, if you can't see what you're drawing it would seem to me to be a bit limiting. Sort of like trying to write cursive sentences with your eyes closed.

Fark linked up an old-but-good demonstration of the SLAMRAAM Humvee project. A rack of AMRAAMS, a jeep, and a drone. It just don't get no better than that.

Both Baltimore and Washington are now experimenting with "rubberized" sidewalks. Made out of recycled tires, the material promises to be more durable over time than conventional asphalt or concrete. Unfortunately it's a lot more expensive, so only time (and testing) will tell if, in the long run, it's actually cheaper than the more conventional stuff. Considering that it seems to take 15 guys three weeks to fix most sidewalks around here, if the stuff actually works it doesn't seem to me it will take all that long to break even.

Via Daffodil Lane.

While this slideshow of the "thirteen scariest things in IT" has a lot of inside humor, there's quite a bit anyone can appreciate. Someone else sent it to our own CFO, I wonder what they'll make of item 7?

The Peanuts Halloween special turns 40 today. Olivia was a big fan of the Christmas special last year. It's not Avatar, but if we can snag it on Tivo I'm sure she'll have a great time with the Halloween special too.

I'm having to guide a tech through the maze that is this place's network today. Posting will be very light until I'm done.

Every time you think you've seen the last really cool shot of a space shuttle launch, someone goes and posts another one. After spending 20-plus years flinging DC-8 sized spacecraft into orbit, switching back to minivan-sized capsules just won't be the same.

"A four cylinder British sports car running on three cylinders has a distinctive sound...Rather like a Spad going down over Flanders."
-P. Egan

A four cylinder Italian sports car with the same liability makes much the same noise, albeit it makes it with much greater style and expense. I've had a Spider for so long I've actually developed the ability to massage its engine to life with just one firing cylinder and a judicious use of the accelerator pedal. Sounds like an old WWII bomber starting up.

From the Department of Disapproving Technocrats, we have this study which "discovers" that in the past forty years America's widening ass has resulted in greater fuel consumption. The fact that America's cars have become far more efficient over the same period of time literally does not enter the equation. Oh, and if I (or any of my friends) actually tried to lose 100 pounds to save that 18 gallons of gas? Well we wouldn't need a car after that because we'd all be dead.

So do you ask him for an autograph before he handcuffs you, or after:

Shaquille O'Neal was present during a botched child pornography raid last month while working in Virginia as a reserve sheriff's deputy.

The Miami Heat center, who pursues his interest in law enforcement during the offseason, denied Tuesday taking part in serving the search warrant at the wrong house Sept. 23. However, Bedford County Sheriff's Lt. Michael Harmony confirmed to The Associated Press that O'Neal was there.

The unfortunate residents of the house mistakenly raided did not report seeing Shaq, so I'm not sure who to believe. Sure, getting guns pointed in my face by lots of screaming men would be distracting, but then again so is a 7'1" 325-pound guy who's face was recently on every Pepsi machine in the world. Ya just never know.

Surprisingly, a hockey play is not number one in this video list of the "top ten dirty plays". Sorry, Ron, no Eagles moments.

Joshua gets a well-covered no-prize for bringing us this classic Man Show segment. Remember kids, say no to crack!

Perhaps soon everyone will look, and sound, like a badly sync'd chop-sake movie:

A "Tower of Babel" device that gives the illusion of being bilingual is being developed by US scientists.

Users simply have to silently mouth a word in their own language for it to be translated and read out in another.

At 80% accuracy with a 200 word vocabulary, I'd call it progress but hardly anything I'd want a soldier to use to say, "is that a bomb in your car or are you just glad to see me?"

The largest "Terror Bird" fossil yet found has been unearthed in Argentina. Standing perhaps 15 feet tall with a skull more than two feet long, this rare fossil includes sub-skeletal remains (feet), which will allow a detailed examination of how mobile it really was. These were the top predators of what would become South America after the dinosaurs were killed off.

Fark linked up this surprising picture found via Google maps. It's weird looking enough to me that I had to check twice to make sure it wasn't some sort of hoax. Looks like it's coming from Google to me. Bizarre...

Democrats gain a majority, and what happens? Put them behind the wheel and the first thing they'll do is try to run over the guy in front of them.

Personally I think this is a bit of right-wing twitching, but hell I thought all the left-wing twitching was over-wrought when all the right-wing loonies started baying for Clinton's hide back in '92. Look how well that turned out.

Me, I'm all for it. Getting in touch with your inner fringe for that warm n' fuzzy lunacy is what poked a hole in the current majority's balloon, and they've been sinking ever since. If the first action the other side takes is to shove a stick through their's, all the better.

Means we don't have to rise as high to pass them after we patch ours.

An otherwise pedestrian article about a press-release declaring mobile phone use might cause reduced fertility in men is saved at the last minute by the most ridiculous costume seen to-date. The guy's eyes say to me, "I bet Tom Cruise didn't have to go through this."

True, but Tom Cruise is crazy.

No, Ron, you can't have one.

While our star seems to be a loner nowadays, recent findings seem to indicate this was not the way things started out.

I've always suspected the relentlessly negative reporting on the war in Iraq by the MSM was more about rich white people being frightened of smelly natives than it ever was about any actual disaster. Now I have proof:

Even journalists sympathetic to the Baghdad press corps admit they essentially just hide out. Here’s how The New York Review of Books put it last April: “The bitter truth is that doing any kind of work outside these American fortified zones has become so dangerous for foreigners as to be virtually suicidal. More and more journalists find themselves hunkered down inside whatever bubbles of refuge they have managed to create in order to insulate themselves from the lawlessness outside.” Unless you accept “insulation” as a synonym for “reporting,” this doesn’t speak well of the hotel denizens.

Other reporters have been less generous. The London Independent’s Robert Fisk has written of “hotel journalism,” while former Washington Post Bureau Chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran has called it “journalism by remote control.” More damningly, Maggie O’Kane of the British newspaper The Guardian said: “We no longer know what is going on, but we are pretending we do.” Ultimately, they can’t even cover Baghdad yet they pretend they can cover Ramadi.

Via Instapundit.

Photography fans in the peanut gallery should find this article on Olivo Barbieri of interest. He's a photographer who uses a variety of techniques to make pictures of actual places look very much like minaturized dioramas. The effect is quite striking.

Pat gets an eeire no-prize for bringing us this article detailing the recent exhibition of an artist's series of self-portraits as he experience the downward spiral of Alzheimer's disease. The article includes pictures of at least some of the paintings which were on display.

Fark (of course) linked up yet another example of just how manic the Japanese can get:

Imagine something like "Rocky 3" with sex.

The magazine provides a written account, accompanied by plenty of nude photos, of four women who enrolled in the three-week summer session --- veteran sex workers at pink salons, soaplands and other businesses. Their jobs were clearly starting to take a physical and mental toll on them, and they were worried that unless they took drastic remedial measures, they'd wind up slack, listless and wrinkled --- prematurely worn-out old bags.

At the demanding three-week camp, the four undergo no-nonsense discipline by their tough male drill instructor, Mr. Nonomura, who aims to whip them back into top shape.

Oh it gets even weirder from there. No, really!

And to think the most sophisticated thing I ever did with Legos was build walls. Sometimes I'm glad Olivia's just into Barbie. Of course, there's always next year.

Looks like the Mississippi isn't the only river to have flowed backward at some point in its history:

The world's largest river, the Amazon, once flowed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific - the opposite of its present direction, a study shows.

Sedimentary rocks in the central part of South America contain ancient mineral grains that must have come from the eastern part of the continent.

Geologist Russell Mapes says this must mean that about 145-65 million years ago, the Amazon flowed east to west.

The thing is, during that time period I don't think there was a land mass even vaguely resembling what we now know as South America. The fact that a river has run more or less continuously in roughly the same place through such profound changes is to me more remarkable than which way it happened to be flowing at any particular time.

Attitudes toward immigration, as with all things related to having a next-door neighbor you can't understand and who cooks weird smelling stuff, are relative:

A poll ... published by the news paper El Universal shows that 50% of interviewed Mexicans are in favor of redoubling the police security in the border with 51% of the Mexicans wanting immigration with Central American citizens to the country to diminish, according to a survey published Monday by the newspaper El Universal. In the USA, 39% think the same in regards to total immigration.

Soft-headed liberal wackamole blaming it all on the Bush administration in 3... 2... 1...

Via Instapundit.

We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard:

The third time was not the charm for homebuilt hardware designed to win a Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

A privately-built vertical takeoff and landing rocket shot for NASA Moon money today but failed at the Wirefly X Prize Cup—an expo of private rocketeers devoted to personal space travel.

Called Pixel, the craft quickly tipped over and crashed shortly after liftoff. An onboard fire was quickly doused.

Hey, I'd rather it crash now instead of on the Moon. They've got plenty of time, and wouldn't it be cool to have something like this actually make it?

Well of course we won't link a series of goofy cat photos. I mean, why would you think we'd do something like that? Silly readers...

Problem: Astronauts heading to Mars risk exposure to deadly radiation. Shielding is heavy, and therefore expensive, if launched from Earth.

Solution: Grab some shielding that's already out there.

While burrowing into and grabbing material from asteriods for shielding is all well and good, I wonder why a ship couldn't just hide in the shadow of one of these asteroids? Must be missing something, or the asteroids are a lot smaller than I'm visualizing.

Cat owners will most likely not be surprised by this:

A 67-year-old woman of Rosdorf in Schleswig Holstein, Germany, accidentally sent her cat Felix, in the mail, after the animal snuck inside the parcel she was sending to her nephew.

The little monsters get everywhere, especially in boxes. No worries though, cat is fine.

Slashdot linked up this op-ed discussing everyone's favorite song parodyist, Weird Al Yankovic. While heavy on the effite "weren't things just awful in the 80s?" attitude, it still does a decent job discussing the man and his career.

Having solved all other problems:

The United States has slapped a ban on Vegemite, outraging Australian expatriates there.

The bizarre crackdown was prompted because Vegemite contains folate, which in the US can be added only to breads and cereals.

Now, I've never tried the stuff myself, but from everything I've read or heard vegemite is an... acquired taste. However, I have it on good authority that the stuff is reasonably popular in Australia. One would think that, if it really were all that dangerous, we would have more reports of, say, two headed Australian babies and whatnot.

Welcome to technocratic regulation at its finest! Coming soon to a Congress near you!

Leave it to the land of Monty Python to take a silly but fun sport just one notch past reality:

Southfields must be the only farm in Britain guarded by an armoured car and a 16ft artillery gun (both decommissioned). This is a working farm but, 15 years ago, Stuart Garner decided to try out an extra source of revenue on his family farm's 250 acres. He opened a conventional paintball site in one of the woods, but kept thinking up ways of improving it.

So, he bought an old tactical missile launcher (without a missile) to replicate landing craft assaults on dry land. That went down a treat, so he bought a couple of armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to liven things up even more.

Then, he had another idea. If the general public found it so much fun playing infantry games, maybe they would like to try out a spot of armoured activity, too. How about tank paintball?

Coming soon to a bachelor party near you!

The Washington Post today carried this update on ongoing research on a captive great white shark. By using what was learned two years ago with a previous captive great white, scientists at the Monterey Bay aquarium have kept a new, male great white healthy and (presumably) happy since September. There appear to be no plans to keep the fish permanently, although the article did not mention just how long their visitor will be resident.

Mark gets a well-protected no-prize for bringing us news of the "Nutty Buddy", the latest in men's athletic protection. Do not miss the video. SFW.

One of Olivia's favorite chop-sake animation shows always has kids jumping to incredible hights. Today, Olivia got to be the Avatar.

Of course it has nothing to do with me wearing and Arkansas Razorback sweatshirt. No really!

We went to the new Asia Trail at the National Zoo and I got this shot right through the glass of the Fishing Cat.

One of our Swedish compatriots took his Duetto "down South" for a tour of his car's homeland, and he has the pictures to prove it.

Sometimes I think it would be a lot of fun to box our Spider up and ship it back to Italy, then tour around the country in it.

Then I sober up.

Hey, if we all make it that far, I can't think of a better way to spend my daughter's inheritance!

If these scientists are right there may be far less water on the moon than was previously hoped, and it will be far harder to get at as well. I always thought an enormous ice rink at the lunar south pole was more what people wanted than what was actually there. Still, I'm curious to know what, if anything, the NASA probe that smashed into that very region a few months ago found. The silence is quite puzzling.

Slashdot linked up news that the planned Halo movie has been cancelled. Looks like the studios decided to play a game of chicken with the production team, but they didn't blink. Microsoft still owns the rights, and Peter Jackson's name still appears to be attached. We may yet see Master Chief bashing grunts. In his Warthog.

Mark gets a right and proper no-prize for bringing us this extremely informative video that all women should view immediately. Do it before it's too late! The brain you save could be your own!

The hobby list is just about too good to be true. She could put "professional cheerleader" in her gaming profile and everyone would likely assume she was a guy.

As with most card tricks, the obvious solution is wrong. I admire this sort of skill, as I have trouble walking down stairs without killing myself. Ellen can't even manage level ground.

Those Japanese, at it again, this time screwing with an apparently unsuspecting lady's workout. Almost literally. Switching to Enya for the last 30 seconds adds a particularly surreal cherry to the top of this Nipponese confection.

Vid is silly and only slightly naughty. I'd call it SFW, but that's just me.

Thing is, this is most likely weird enough to stand on its own:

A leaping stingray stabbed an 81-year-old Florida boater in the chest, authorities said Wednesday, leaving its poisonous stinger lodged close to his heart in an incident recalling the one that killed Australian TV naturalist Steve Irwin last month.

Leapin' stingrays!

You just can't make this stuff up.

Making the rounds: big media, again, missed the point on important legislation:

During the bitter controversy over the military commission bill, which President Bush signed into law on Tuesday, most of the press and the professional punditry missed the big story. In the struggle for power between the three branches of government, it is not the presidency that "won." Instead, it is the judiciary that lost.

Considering that the most devisive and destructive crises this country has gone through were directly created by Supreme Court decisions, the occasional trimming of their powers is usually fine by me.

So where did Odysseus live? Prevailing opinion has been what is now known as Ithaki, but recently someone wrote a whole book which hypothesised it to be somewhere else, and now they're testing that hypothesis:

Most people think the modern-day Ionian island of Ithaki is the location.

But geologists are this week sinking a borehole on nearby Kefalonia in an attempt to test whether its western peninsula of Paliki is the real site.

It really brings home how old these stories are, that entire chunks of geography can change so radically you have to dig boreholes just to see the difference.

Actually, there might be a bright side to this:

O.J. Simpson is confessing. Hypothetically, that is.

The former football great, who was acquitted in criminal court 11 years ago of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, reportedly has been paid a whopping $3.5 million to write about the double murder that shocked and riveted the nation in 1994, according to a detailed report in the new National Enquirer.

The silver lining? Assuming he doesn't back down and pull the plug on the project over the uproar, Ron Goldman will be the one getting all the profits. Well, I hope.

Maybe there isn't a bright side after all.

Joshua gets a goofy nerdy no-prize for bringing us even more spoofs of the "mac vs. PC" ad campaign. I thought the original was just about as smug as it could get, so any parody that takes a shot at them is fine by me.

Root rules!

Tamara gets a psychotically misguided no-prize for bringing us this story of a redneck gone wrong:

A Little Rock man was arrested after he allegedly shot at a motorist with a crossbow after police say the motorist made an obscene gesture at the man.

Why yes, Virginia, alcohol was involved. Clever girl!

If you want two years of Congressional investigations, by all means vote for the Democrats.

There seem to be quite a few people who think that would be a good thing.

Via Instapundit.

Some folks may think a Star Wars tattoo is a "nerd for life" decision. Me, I think at least some of them are pretty neat looking. Still don't want one, but I don't begrudge someone who does.

According to this Scientific American article, recycled steel may end up being a more significant iron "mine" than the ones that punch holes in the ground. By using statistical data from a variety of sources, these scientists claim to have quantified the US's use of steel from new and recycled sources. The results show there already is substantial recycling from scrap going on, but the data also show a significant amount of loss over time. The researchers hope their work will point the way toward more effective recycling methods, as well as provide a guide for just how much of the stuff developing countries will need as they grow, and perhaps even when their needs will level off.

Slashdot linked up this detailed account of what it's like to be a hard-core Warcraft gamer, what it requires, and why this person had to stop. I, too, know people who have screwed up their lives over gaming. For awhile, I was one of them. I do still play games, sometimes for hours, but nowadays I also walk away from them for weeks at a time. It's getting to the point I'm not sure if I'm going to upgrade my computer any time soon, since the time I invest doesn't really seem to justify the money it would require.

Not sure if that means I'm growing up or not. I don't judge people who have this problem; I'm convinced everyone can get addicted to something if they're not careful. But if your life looks like the WoW parody on Southpark, maybe it's time to just walk away from it for awhile.

Update: Not surprisingly, getting your blog linked by Slashdot tends to result in an interesting follow-up article. I think, ultimately, I don't play these kinds of games for the same reason I don't try a lot of things I know I might be good at. I'm so competitive I don't want to just be good, I want to be the best. If being the best requires more effort than I want to put in, I just don't start.

Well, if something happens to one of Om's legs, it's good to know there's a solution:

The 54-year-old pet has a mini air-filled rubber wheel to replace a leg lost to a predator.

The 4x4 style system even has a tiny shock absorber.

Article includes adorable picture of said pet. Not sure what sort of turtle it is, but I'll bet Ellen will know.

"AMCLTD," we hear you ask, "I'm fed up with my wife, my children monopolize the computer, mistresses cost too much, and prostitutes are too dangerous. But me so horny! What am I to do?"

Fear not, friendly pervert, AMCGLTD is here to help! Presenting The Doll Experience Room, where for a mere $26 per hour you too can experience the joys of plastic love. The article states these are cheap inflatable companions, but a careful read indicates they are in fact the Caddilac of toys, the ever-so-creepy "real doll". The authorities might decide this is illegal on sheer gross-out grounds, so don't delay! The nut you bust could be your own!

Hey, what good is a personal website if you can't use it to post goofy videos of your friends with it? Video is SFW, and contains much pasty-white-boy goodness. I especially liked how the one on the left couldn't get his shirt off.

The setup: the birthday party of a political conservative being attended by many political liberals. Names are withheld to protect the skinny and untanned (they can always comment to reveal themselves), but we will say we're quite impressed by how well the taller one danced. Wookies rule!

So three weeks ago spam and viruses passing through the e-mail filter at work exploded, going from ~ 10,000 spam messages to ~ 200,000, per day, all at once. A week later I get a notice from our ISP that we've been reported as running an open relay. "Wha?!?" I said to myself. You see, a long time ago we really were running an open relay, and after many long hours and blown up e-mail configurations, I closed it. I've been damned careful about it ever since.

So I was flummoxed. I talked our ISP out of shutting us down, but was not at all sure what to do next. I regularly see various spamcop-like systems test our mail filter, and it always passes. A little more research revealed what was going on: because of the nature of our network, the filter accepts e-mail without checking to see if the address is valid. That's the job of the main mail server. If the main mail server thinks the address is bad, it sends a bounce message to the sender. It's supposed to do it. It's actually required to do it, by internet standards.

Which ended up being a loophole for spammers. It works like this: they send mail out to addresses on our network they know are bad, and fake the FROM address, which is the one they really want to reach. The mail server dutifully sends a bounce message to the person it thinks sent the message, and pow, some innocent person gets spammed and thinks it came from my network. Worse still, the filter has to process each one of these stupid messages, dragging performance down for the whole system.

By now whatever scumbag figured this out for our network had told all his friends, because our quite powerful filter was beginning to buckle under the load. Which is when I found this, a near-magical (and comparatively cheap) widget that lets the filter check if the address is good, and immediately reject the message if it's not.

When implemented, the filter went from a utilization of 4-7 (way overloaded) to a utilization of .86 (loafing along). I'm seeing thousands of messages being rejected because of this new widget. All of them representing scum-sucking spammer retards who were hijacking our stuff to send their messages.

Suck it, you bastards.

Hey, it's my blog, I talk about what I want :).

New Scientist is carrying this update on developments in treatments for Parkinson's syndrome. By using an engineered virus, researchers were able to use gene treatments to help otherwise unresponsive patients to experience significant gains in mobility and motor control. The results are preliminary, early, and utilized (what seems to be to be) a small number of patients. But progress is progress, and this sure looks like it.

Using an engineered virus. We really are living science fiction.

Well, not exactly a circle, or a square, rather an egg, and a cube. Sort of. By the looks of the packaging, this thing has been around forever. Looks like something you'd get out of the back of a comic book.

Even I think this is a bit much just to get a 360 view. Then again, it's most likely a prototype. Being able to just turn my head to see things in a gaming environment would be beyond cool, so if they miniaturize it I'd sure be interested.

Check out who's #4 on the list of "cities most likely to steal pro sports teams. The Arkansas Cowboys. Now that has a ring to it, doesn't it?

Of course, considering who owns the team and who coached it to two superbowls, you could almost call them that now.

3... 2... 1...

MSNBC is carrying this article detailing the discovery of a pair of "dancing asteroids". One is about a mile wide and not much more than a pile of rubble held together with gravity, the other is about a quarter that size and solid. Both rotate about each other, with the gravity of each affecting the other each turn. The larger of the pair, "Alpha", is also spinning so fast it's close to flying apart.

Ain't space science grand?

The environmental movement exaggerating something? Oh I simply don't believe it:

Leading toxicologists have warned green groups are "misleading" the public with chemical contamination campaigns.

They said they are deliberately and unfairly scaring the public.

In particular, they criticised a WWF campaign that has highlighted the presence of chemicals in blood, food and in babies' umbilical cords.

And why are we suddenly getting these notices?

The researchers said the chemicals were being found in trace amounts because of advances in detection techniques that could uncover substances at ever smaller concentrations.

Just like if you take a big enough dose of anything it's poison, if you look hard enough you'll probably find trace amounts of anything everywhere.

Now our heads can explode at the same time our stomachs are churning:

Professor Stephen Hawking, Britain’s world-renowned physicist, is to switch from theories of multidimensional space to the three dimensions of the Imax cinema by starring in a film that sets out his ideas on the origins and fate of the universe.

The film, Beyond the Horizon, will tackle some of the most daunting theories espoused by Hawking and other cosmologists, from the idea that space has up to 11 dimensions to the cause of the big bang itself.

As noted in the article, these concepts are notoriously difficult to explain (to mathematical dunces like me anyway) without dynamic visuals to assist. Looks like he's finally going to get some!

Well of course Christians shouldn't blog... it could lead to dancing! Includes the especially informative assertion:

The Church of God is made up of seven separate eras, recorded in Revelation 2 and 3. Today we live in the Laodicean era (Rev. 3:14-21)—the seventh and last era of the Church. Last century was, for the most part, the time of the sixth era, Philadelphia.

To understand Church eras, you can read their descriptions. Another way to gain knowledge of a particular era is to examine its name. For example, Philadelphia means “brotherly love,” a trait of that era.

So the 20th century, you know, the one with all the world wars and gulags and concentration camps and purges and such, was the era of "brotherly love"?

The irony of a warning against blogs in what is in essence a blog entry goes without saying.

It's almost enough to think this is another Landover-style hoax site. The sincerity and banality of the advice makes me think otherwise, but I've been fooled before.

Slashdot linked up this review of the Sony Reader, an innovative attempt at electronic books. More like re-attempt, as earlier hopes for other technologies have simply not panned out. It finally includes a description of what the display is, how it works, and what it's like. The ultimate verdict seems to be, "close, but not quite."

Definitely not at $300+. If they're eventually able to pull the price under $50, I don't think they'll be able to make them fast enough.

The great "mother-and-son" aerobatics squad is no more:

A Saturday afternoon airplane crash at Culpeper Regional Airport claimed the life of Nancy Lynn, 50, of Annapolis. A 30-year veteran of the aviation industry, Lynn was killed during a solo acrobatic performance at Culpeper Air Fest 2006.

We've featured several different photos of Nancy's flying in the past two years. She put on an amazing show, and will be missed next year.

Stay tuned for tomorrows brew!