O and a friend.

I think it's gonna take A Gramma or two to get Ellen to post some pictures. Apologies until then.

One of the few "radical" libertarian points I strongly support is the repeal of the minimum wage. However, I've had a hard time finding a succinct way of explaining why. Problem solved.

Go read the whole thing first, then come back and tell me, exactly, how wrong it is. And hold this sign while you do.

Yes, yes, I know your name is not E. L. Eetist, but trust me, you'll have a hard time convincing people it isn't.

Via Instapundit.

A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on.
Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: "You cannot fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong."
Knight turned the machine off and on.
The machine worked.

Maybe Ellen will get it this time...

Fox has decided to revive its Alien franchise with a prequel, and it would appear Ridley Scott will be back to direct it. If nothing else, it'll likely be interesting to look at.

Everyone knows F-1 team principles make big bucks. That's very nice. Nicer still are the benefits. The latest rumors have Renault pulling out after this season, so ol' Flavio may end up out of a job soon.

Two words: dissolving bikini. Of course, this is predicated on someone who SHOULD wear a bikini, instead of someone who WANTS to wear one. The former is, after all, only a subset of the latter.

Both of The Grammas are sighing and shaking their heads.

Bonus: a demonstration of a record changer!

Next up, Women with flower pots on their heads. No, really! Don't worry, all will be made right just two picture-clicks to the, well, right.

Oink Oink Oink.

New Scientist is featuring these highlights from The Welcome Collection in London called Exquisite Bodies, which lays claim to "exploring the often bizarre Victorian approach to medical teaching and public titillation." Ellen will likely click through it three or four times.

Having driven around our nation's capital many times, I can think of no other, better, place for our current boogey-man to reside. I guess he road-trips down to Bailey's when he needs to go to Home Depot, eh?

Today's "from cringe to cure" history of medicine is brought to you by the pictorial history of dentistry. The early pictures are exclusively of tools, so it's safe-for-stomach, if not for -imagination.

As noted on Fark, some articles just can't be improved. You'd think someone would've explained it to them before they went to press. Either that or there's a headline writer in a lot of trouble this morning.

I've often wondered just how market forces could be leveraged to create sustainable health care reform. Now I don't need to wonder anymore. The thin edge of the wedge is already there, and working, with health savings plans (at my workplace, at any rate). If the dollars the government takes from me for various health related entitlements, and the money I and my employer pay for "regular" insurance, were placed in a similar sort of account, I know for a fact I'd have more money to spend on my own health care than I do now.

Careful now, when you disagree with me, that you're not doing so because flyover country is too stupid to do the same. Elitism is in many ways nastier than racism, because it allows you to discriminate against the people you think aren't worthy.

Shumacher's coming back to Ferrari! At least, that's what Bild is saying. For those who're not following the sport (philistines), lead Ferrari driver Phillipe Felipe Massa got hit in the head by a spring roughly the size and weight of a full soda can at 155 mph last Saturday during practice at Hungary. Amazingly, he's still alive and in guarded condition, with doctors hopeful for a full recovery.

That said, he almost certainly isn't coming back very soon. It will be very interesting to see how ol' Shumy does. Ferrari built cars around him to his very particular tastes, and the current car isn't one of those. That said, he didn't win 7 world championships just because everyone else moved aside.

See you next Sunday!

Science is proving that, once again, when you analyze human behavior, even "bad" behavior, it's often done for a good reason even when that reason isn't always clear. Case in point: people are jerks in traffic because being a jerk works, and, surprisingly, it works for everyone. At least until the tail-gaters get involved. Ellen. :)

All right, who let Beavis and Butthead play around with the molecular chemistry gear? Or is this absolute proof God exists, and has a sense of humor? Perhaps God is Beavis and Butthead? The mind boggles...

The Russians have started production of a new attack sub. The first of this class was laid down in 1993 and isn't expected to be finished until 2011, so it's not like two advanced Soviet Russian attack subs will be prowling around any time soon. Still, something to keep an eye on.

Remember those stories about the "sky deck" in the Sears Willis Tower in Chicago? Yeah, it's about as spectacular as you'd think. Seems on the day it premiered it was raining. That'd be just my luck. Supposedly convention-after-next will be in Chicago, so I'll have to pencil this in on my, "to do" list.

Today's, "vehicle goes swimming incident" is brought to you by Aloha (no, really) Oregon. One look at the truck makes me think they'll need to drain the water twice to get that pool clean.

Coming in second isn't always a great thing, but if you're Alfa Romeo, and your competition includes brands like BMW and Mercedes, second place, well, it' ain't so bad. And yeah, I think having Daihatsu on the top spot is a little strange myself, but I'll take what I can get!

A group of amateurs volunteering their time to classify galaxies have has discovered a completely new type, which is forming stars at a much faster pace than current models predict. It's a cool article, but what I really wanted to do was use a line from a really old, really cheesy sitcom. I'm sure you'll understand.

To the surprise of basically nobody, the first screaming liberal to be appointed to the Supreme Court in, well, a long damned time has been confirmed. Meh. The court's raving conservative, Scalia, has been there for 27 years, and the world hasn't ended. This won't be the end of the world, either.

We've just tipped over the edge of the first hill on this donkey of a roller coaster, folks. Hang the hell on, it's gonna be a bumpy, scary ride.

For Ron.

A new company is claiming to have created an algae-based technique for biofuel with yields which could make it competitive with common dino-juice. Two years ago this stuff was all in labs, and the scientists were saying, "five to ten years." Now they're saying things like "three to five years," and are scouting sites to build farms. Now, that's my kind of progress!

What happens when you combine Hawaii-sized surf with New Jersey-skilled surfers? Well, you get this. Wide World of Sports, they ain't.

Scientists have discovered the compound used to make M&M shells blue can also be used to help reduce the damage of spinal injuries. Bonus: you turn blue when you're treated with it. Hey, IMO looking like a smurf is a small price to pay to stay away from a wheelchair!

Now they're saying the MiTo won't be the first Alfa to reach our shores. Which sort of makes sense, in a way. The protections fencing the US auto market make it really quite difficult to sell a low-cost car that's not built here. Still, the new Milano is looking quite interesting. It's also nice to be seeing a, "which one?" question, instead of "are we getting any at all?"

The thing is, he's not out to convince you, he's out to help people like me give as good as we get. Which is why I'm certain this will either be ignored or pilloried in places that think they matter. The truth too often ignored is, times have changed, and the places that matter, well, don't matter quite as much anymore, if at all.

Nothing like toodling around in a high-performance jet without the windshield to start the morning. Or end the afternoon, as the case may be. Bonus: the guy claims to have flown it that way at Mach 2!

On re-examining the photos, I think maybe this was actually some sort of weird ejection seat test. All the photos, save the one where it's departing, show the plane without the rear seat. Those crazy Russians!

Looks like Disney's changed it from TR2N to Tron: Legacy. Still way too early to tell for sure, but it definitely sniffs of suckage. But that's just me.

So, says here astronauts sleep well but don't get a shower, yet I distinctly remember Skylab had one. Next space station not good enough for one, or something?

Scientists have developed a new technique which may rapidly decrease the time it takes to engineer bacteria that create desirable substances. The key is a system which allows a massive number of bacteria to be created with slight, but significant, genetic differences in each one. This "shotgun" approach seems to be a bit like the lottery... if you play enough numbers, what you want is bound to show up eventually.

Mark gets a no-prize shaped like an amphora for bringing us news of the discovery of even more ancient Roman ship wrecks. Apparently looters are getting better gear, and are now able to pick apart even comparatively deep wrecks like the ones featured in the article. It always will be a race between science and profit.

Two words: killer chipmunks. What's that you say? The media over-hyping a crisis to sell papers? Bah. Next you'll tell me they'll sensationalize a celebrity's death just to get ratings...

Well, they may not have won the latest round of the, "24 Hours of Lemons" race, but check out who took the next four three spots! They may be goofy Italian cars, but, when prepped right, they can definitely be fast goofy Italian cars.

Presenting Yellow-Yellow, the bear smart enough to defeat "bear canisters" most campers can't get into. The in-laws will not be surprised to find out this bear, is from New York.

I'm about to face yet another transition of parenthood. Worse than child puke. Worse than the hospital visit. Yes, intrepid reader, you guessed right. I now face... the LITTLE GIRL SLEEP-OVER!!!

Pray to your various gods. I have a feeling I'm going to need it.

Ron'll have to go to the shoals of Orion to pick up the no-prize he gets for bringing us this graphic example of what happens when Welshmen have too much time, and way too many Christmas lights, on their hands.

No, it's not bad. It's actually pretty darned funny. And I know they're not exactly Christmas lights, but that's what they looked like to me.

Oh, I know, I know, he'll lose 90% of you the second he says anything nice about Bush. But it takes about 40% of the program before that happens, and in the meantime you can thrill, as did I, to someone quite calmly saying in public that Obama is full of crap. I mean, really, it has been so very long since I've seen anything remotely critical of our current president it literally took my breath away to see it on what looks just enough like a TV to count.

Why, thank you for this sign. But you see, I'm afraid you've made a mistake, my name isn't, "Mr. N. Eeds Togetoutmore." Not even close.

E-mail? Who needs e-mail. I need this. Heck, it even picked the restaurant I was jonesing for as a supper pick tonight. Technology is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

John Stossel: "It's crazy for a group of mere mortals to try to design 15 percent of the U.S. economy. It's even crazier to do it by August." What's not mentioned is this is the 15 percent of the U.S. economy that keeps you from dying. Yeah. Congress is definitely the organizational body I want to be responsible for the health of my own body. They're doing such a good job at everything else, after all...

Remember, folks, quad turbos and a thousand-and-one horsepower mean never having to say you're sorry. It actually looks like the GT-R beats the Veryon in the first few hundred feet. After that it would seem the Veryon gets it all hooked up and lined up and then it's just freaking gone.

Which is what I'd expect if I were driving a car that cost ten times what a $100k-ish competitor cost. eh?

Sometimes there's just no improving on the story itself:

A Chinese girl was lost her memory and had to be taken to hospital after she was hit on the head by a pregnant tortoise.

Unfortunately the chelonian missile didn't make it, and the girl looks like she'll literally be scarred for life.

It would seem people actually emit visible light. As in, "glow in the dark," albeit very, very faintly. Who knew?

Leave it to Fark to dredge up what Ebony magazine thought, in 1985, what Micheal Jackson would look like in 2000. The headline used there was quite appropriate: "1985 Ebony Magazine prediction of what Michael Jackson would look like in the year 2000. Billy Dee Williams stands up in protest and kills a Colt 45".

I swear. I swear. The very first thing I noticed about this particular ad was the Spider in the garage. My story. Sticking to it.

And that garage? Oh, that garage...

Chinese scientists have announced the ability to create viable and fertile mouse pups from adult mouse skin cells. Cloning whole critters is all well and good, but I'm looking forward to the day they can clone spare parts.

One of NASA's Earth Observatory probe captured this nifty image of the most recent total solar eclipse. The next one to happen in the continental US won't be seen in VA (as I recall). I've been waiting so long to see one I think I just may go traveling to catch it, if I can.

While the site itself seems to be critical of the restaurant conversions it features, personally I have no problem with it. Then again, I work in Arlington, who's re-use zoning laws are famous in the way they limit what can and cannot be done to the exterior of a building. Still didn't save that cool dealership over at Ballston, though.

It would seem fathers really aren't dispensable. Certain females in my life, who once harped quite often on how women could do without men but not vice-versa, will be ever so disappointed.

Whale shark? Your aquarium has one whale shark? But does it have three? And, from what I could count, three manta rays as well. Can't say I've ever even heard of those living in captivity. Now if this was the tank in my doctor's office, I might be more likely to visit!

From someone who is supposedly related to someone who works at Chrysler:

From my brother Steve who works in the Prototype Shop at Chrysler........ New fun facts and such.....Fiat 500 will be badged as a Chrysler The Abarth version is in AND will be marketed. There are also some NEW oddities.....Full ELECTRIC 500 (not hybrid). Steve says it is pretty cool. The Abarth 500 has 17" wheels with extremely low profile tires. He said it took two (2) guys PLUS the tire machine to get the tires on the wheels because of the "very ridgid" sidewall. Now he says this one is a monster and is very quick. Also lurking around is a Lotus Elise that is full electric. It may OR may not be produced and marketed as a Dodge. He also says that with all the Italians involved; English has become the 'secondary' language. He is STILL trying to interpret "hand and arm" gestures and as yet can't decipher whether the "yelling" is normal or frustration or madness or just being "Italian",,,,,Ed K.

Bah. Ellen read it over my shoulder and couldn't understand how someone couldn't understand "language-plus-gestures".

Sometimes it really is this simple:

In short, the choice for developing countries is between mass death due to the consequences of an overheated planet sometime in the distant future, and mass suicide due to imposed instant starvation right now. Is it any surprise that they are reluctant to jump on the global-warming bandwagon?

And of course, without these developing countries on the bandwagon, you know, the ones with well over half of the world's population, nothing anyone else can do will help. Except, of course, increase misery, slow economic growth, and ensure the only place where real job growth will occur is in the public sector.

On second thought, no wonder the Dems support it so strongly.

Nothing like full motion video to ensure the guys you're sending to their 72 virgins really deserve it. At least nowadays they're blanking the HUD info, which I always found quite informative as to what was taking the pictures, and where it happened to be.

Hopefully our friend Kevin does not in fact use an iPod, otherwise I'd fear for his bad-luck-self's safety:

An exclusive KIRO 7 Investigation reveals an alarming number of Apple brand iPod MP3 players have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property.

Local media sensationalizing a story for effect? Say it ain't so!

While these things are certainly interesting looking, I don't know how well they'd do holding books. Probably expensive too. Still, it is a step up from some planks and a couple of cinder blocks, eh?

Via Violins and Starships.

It would seem the next endangered auto technology is the spark plug. Great. Yet another part that will eventually become impossible to find for the cars I drive. Ah, well...

She ended up in Kenya:

In many ways, the setting is just a typical family breakfast.

Young children and their mother enjoy croissants and orange juice while sitting around a table together.

But things become a little different when you notice a giraffe poking its head through the window to join them for a drink and a bite to eat.

Note to hyper-literal relations: "lost sister" is a literary device. Except when Nina's GPS unit runs its batteries flat.

Personally, I think the twitter posts were the best.

Mark gets a no-prize that contains the receipts of all his past Ren Fair tickets for bringing us news that one of the most extensive collection of medieval accounting records in the world is now on-line. These records provide very valuable cross-checks to the various chronicles of the time, and allow the tracking of sometimes very normal men throughout their lives, something that is not possible anywhere else in Europe until perhaps the late 18th century.

The British are famous for their love of the garden variety eccentric. The Germans, being who they are, won't be happy unless their eccentrics are doing something complicated, with a lot of engineering involved. With pictures!

The small fire spread throughout the wooden roof structure and appeared to be concentrated in the roof stack of the crematorium, he added.

Makes you wonder who started it.

Engineers have created an apartment block made of wood which can withstand a 7.5-strength earthquake. Kind of a shame, in a way, since I think the only way to get rid of those bums in downtown San Francisco would be to drop buildings on them.

The Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest three bibles known to exist, is now available on-line. The interesting thing about Sinaiticus, and its other contemporaries Vaticanus and the somewhat later Alexandrinus is how unique they are. At this period Christian writings, and the Old Testament documents they were usually based on, were distributed in collections of books, many examples of which survive today. These three are the only "whole" bibles known to have existed for seven or eight centuries.

As spectacular as the films are, I think this is the most compelling footage of all. We've all spent nearly thirty years watching space shuttles go off this very same pad, with nearly this very same gear, like airplanes glued to bottle rockets. These are the same camera points, and, to me at least, nothing else really conveys the true sense of scale. The giant that dominated my imagination for my entire life left the world's stage with a roar, never to be seen again. I have missed it at least a little ever since.

No, really, it's happening right now. Likely we'll be in bed when they're scheduled to step out. And how much would you have given to be able to listen in, and watch, like we do nowadays with the shuttle?

Being a cop is all fun and games until the @#$@%'ing convenience store owner refuses to erase the surveillance tape. Even better are all the super-macho Fark comments about how this particular policeman should be a) suspended, b) fired, and c) shot.

Sorry, folks, it doesn't work that way. He kept his job because he's union, and if unions are good for anything it's making it essentially impossible to fire anyone easily, no matter how justified it is. The lady sat in jail while the cop roamed free because thousands of sh-theads accuse cops of doing all sorts of awful things every day, and it's too expensive to believe (and investigate) them all.

The truly brave person in the story is the store owner, who if nothing else now faces the prospect of a store with no police protection whatsoever. At best.

Unfortunately this is the only way it can work. Freedom of the press doesn't just keep the feds from tossing us in jail for no reason, it also keeps the local cops from doing the same. Sometimes. When it's interesting, at any rate.

Is it consistent? No. Is it perfect? No. The sad truth is, however, that this is the only system proven to be compatible with human nature. We are imperfect beings, and least-worst is often the very best anyone can hope for.

One only has to compare what police are like in more "enlightened" states to see just how good "least worst" can be.

A recent genetic study has concluded Neandertals likely went extinct because there just weren't that many of them. Perhaps as few as 3500, even. Such a precise, and precisely small, number would seem to make them far less likely to be fossilized. That said, perhaps the neandertal practice of burying their dead made them much more likely to be fossilized?

Looks like the Air Force has a new toy. "Translator" doesn't seem quite right for a system that connects a bunch of disparate data networks together. "Ultimate bridge" seems more appropriate to me. But wtf do I know?

Set your alarms, folks! Today, at 4:17 pm EDT this will happen, 40 years ago.

Looks like something may have hit Jupiter in the past day or two. Or not. As with most of these things, nobody's quite sure. Personally, I suspect Sarah Palin is behind it somehow.

A MOTHER has made public the plight of her son who became a teenage alcoholic and is now dying because he is not allowed a liver transplant.

Now you feel you need help?

Sorry dude. Karma sucks.

surprised.

"(The) majority of them were sacrificed using a very sharp bladed instrument, probably a copper or bronze tummy knife. And for the majority there are a several combinations, complex set of variations on cutting of the throat, " Mr Klaus said.

The stupid shit people back then belived.

However, Turnbull said she was shocked and delighted when she recently received a letter from a local veterinarian saying the cat had been found.

The power of the microchip.

Maybe he just wanted to play a round of golf.

The New York Times is now getting in on the act with this road test of the Alfa Romeo MiTo. The review's conclusions, that the car is heaps of fun but a bit crude and harsh, tracks pretty well with other road tests I've read. The nice thing is suspensions can be refined and steering can be fixed. In other words, it would appear to be no worse than any other new model, and in many cases is much better.

All for (supposedly) around $20k. They may just have gotten it right this time.

NASA has released new pictures of the lunar landing sites as they exist today. Apparently these images were taken when the LRO was still stabilizing its orbit. They're promising much better pictures in the months to come.

Boy, I tell ya, the lengths to which those NASA weenies will go to perpetuate the biggest hoax in modern history is pretty impressive, eh?

Guess what the second choice you get on a Google search for, "tell me something silly" is.

Wrong. (SFW!)

Because my brain is smoking from implementing my very first honest-to-god state machine, and this particular system has 22 different states. And counting. That's why.

Mark gets a run-out hourglass of a no-prize for bringing us news that some very interesting tombs in Rome will soon be for sale. They ain't cheap, and if you're not local don't even bother, but if you're well off and live in the area, well, you can buy a place that'll give you a place when you're eventually neither.

Remember those scientists who were working on a way to get algae to poop fuel? They seem to be progressing nicely. 100k gallons of fuel in a year is quite a lot of gas, but it's less than a drop of what the whole country uses in a day. Still, ya gotta start somewhere, and this also seems to demonstrate the technique is not just a whole lotta hype.

All of this is happening, right now, 40 years ago. It wouldn't surprise me if the shot of the top of that Sat V had my dad in it. Unfortunately it's impossible to be sure.

"The handle of the fork broke off and it went straight into Smokey's head. He ran away and after that we thought he must have gone off and died.

Say it with me: Aww..

Note: The owner has no teeth, and is a total hick winner.

Sure it's a one-gag joke, but it's a funny one gag joke. Especially if you're one of our friends, to whom a wookie tag has been stuck firmly.

I wonder if an Anthropology student could make a Masters thesis work with this thing? "Twitter pictures posted by millions of humans reveal startling data about behavior" would be the imaginary headline, I suppose. As far as I could tell it was SFW, but I only watched it for a few minutes.

Scientists in Germany have created a new technique to grow artificial human skin at a much lower price than other existing techniques. It seems the process is much faster as well. It's a little creepy to me, but I'm sure my squeamishness would disappear quickly enough were I to need a skin graft of some sort.

Well, if nothing else at least this guy has the body to pull it off. Just what, exactly, he's trying to pull off, I have no idea. I'm just glad it's a little youTube video. That was frightening enough.

Four words: rifle mounted cup holder. I love America! Not sure I recognize the gun though, maybe an H&K?

84 lb. girl catches 190 lb. fish. We watch the Animal Planet show River Monsters pretty avidly, and so knew such monstrous critters did in fact ply fresh waters. We did not, however, know any of them lived in Spain. Aye ca-rumba!

No, really, pee power:

Urine-powered cars, homes and personal electronic devices could be available in six months with new technology developed by scientists from Ohio University.

Using a nickel-based electrode, the scientists can create large amounts of cheap hydrogen from urine that could be burned or used in fuel cells. "One cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water for 19 houses," said Gerardine Botte, a professor at Ohio University developing the technology. "Soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel."

"No, officer, I was drinking beer because I ran out of gas!"

A British museum has discovered one of the mummies in its collection claims to be a she but is in fact a he. Seems quite strange to me, since I can't recall ever hearing about trans-gendered folks in antiquity. By the time this mummy was made, Greek culture was ascendant and they quite famously had no problems with sexuality of any sort.

Via Violins and Starships.

So, since there are no nearby Waffle House restaurants (Waffle Houses?), I guess we won't get our fair share of weirdness? Meh. This is N. Virginia. You know, the place where you can have a North, South, East, and West version of a street all meeting at a corner? We got our weirdness built-in.

Ok, now I've seen everything: Obama administration's threat to veto F-22 purchase draws ire of gay activists. Those unfamiliar with how Washington works will be puzzled. Those familiar can repeat after me, "they must have attached a rider to the bill to get something passed."

Hehehehehehheh... rider... heheheheheheh...

Just when you thought you'd seen it all, now they've discovered Michael Jackson's face in a branch stump. As in "sawed a branch off the tree" stump. I do hereby proclaim that media's period of exploiting mourning the King of Pop to be over. Either that, or it's all jumped the shark. Probably both.

Scientists have discovered a "repulsive" side of light which should enable more sophisticated micro-manufacturing techniques. It all works because out-of-phase light beams repel each other. Not only does the discovery have implications for building very small things, it also could be used to create light-based circuits as well. Anything that'll make a laptop run cooler is fine by me!

Still, if the alternatives are taking a bumpy ride or getting blown to bits, please feel free to bump away. Escape tests are fun!

Oh, look, it seems Al Qaeda has a spy problem on its hands. Poor little hajji. The problem with attacking rich people is, if you don't kill them the first time, they spend all their money trying to kill you back.

And you see, hajji, we have so very, very much money to spend...

Scientists have found evidence that Venus may have been covered by water once, and had continents driven by plate tectonics. The data is not conclusive, but at present there is no evidence which contradicts the theory that at some distant point in the past Venus was the most Earth-like planet in the solar system.

... farkin' wif ur mind:

Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.

Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.

The conclusions seem a bit... florid... compared to the data, but it's an interesting conclusion nonetheless. Now for follow-up, they should see if such a purr can be found out amongst barnyard feral colonies.

Ellen would almost crash her car too:

Miss Dixon-Yeung, 27, was driving to the supermarket when the creature appeared from beneath the bonnet of her silver Audi TT.

She enlisted the help of Asda worker Joe Moore to remove the removed the reptile, which was later identified as a harmless North American corn snake.

The difference would be, as I'm sure you already have guessed, that Ellen would be trying to catch the thing to bring it home. Oh, and not to worry, snakey-snake ended up safely home in a field behind the store.

I guess I'm a terrible person for smirking at this. At least a little. No, it's not nice to purposely freak out a bear cub, but I just don't know if that's how they all act, if that's how this one acts and it's a pain in the ass and they're trying to train it out of the cub, or if they're just a bunch of cruel m-f'ers. I didn't recognize the alphabet, didn't look like Chinese or Japanese. Maybe this was in Malaysia somewhere?

... progressives are now recommending banning tobacco products outright in the military. It's my understanding restrictions on where someone can smoke are every bit as strict and arbitrary as they are in the civilian world. Of course, since incentives aren't working, and this is the military, we'll just make them quit. After all, legislating human behavior works so very well!

And in the, "if you have to ask..." category, we have this 1962 Alfa Giulietta Sprint Zagato. I actually saw one of these a very long time ago at an owners club meet in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. They're amazingly small cars, with a really neat, blatty exhaust note. The owner had restored it himself, and said it was like driving around inside a drum. But a fun drum! I had no idea the things were so valuable. Then again, that was right around 20 years ago, so this may be a case of "when appreciation attacks!"

Update: Don't miss this even pricier TZ-1, the follow-on to the Sprint Zagato featured above. Vintage race cars, FTW!

Well, it's nice to know it's not just Americans who can take a video game way too seriously. Fallout was one of those games everyone liked but I just couldn't get into. I actually enjoy a bit of linear story telling, since otherwise I'm just wandering around getting my a-- shot off for reasons I don't understand. Meh.

If CNet is to be believed, the first Alfa Romeo on our shores will actually be the "new" 4-door Milano. The article includes a new phone picture of the pre-production line. Can't say I find it particularly stylish, but this "foam squishy" look is actually the result of a raft of progressive legislation intending to protect pedestrians. In other words, they're ALL going to look like that soon. I guess if it saves one idiot who doesn't look both ways...

While I'm sure having a big ol' telephoto lens helped make this all look a lot closer together than it actually was, this is still a really nifty air show picture. Andrews AFB, where I take all my shots, is of course emphatically not surrounded by various buildings, so I'll just have to pass on trying for one of these.

Mark gets an accessorized no-prize for bringing us this ultimate demonstration of coolness.

Scientists have discovered evidence that some dinosaurs who lived in Earth's polar regions burrowed in the ground to survive. I'd think with such a ready-made opportunity for fossilization, there'd be more of these to find. Then again, what do I know?

When I got on the airplane heading into San Francisco, the cover of The Economist was Obama heading into the Russian bear's mouth. It was going to be a big deal. Since I long ago gave up on The Washington Post as being anything but a high-class Democratic mouthpiece, I've been using Google as my news aggregator. I can honestly say the utter, and complete, lack of coverage made me forget Obama'd even gotten on an airplane. This, however, reminded me. One of the ways historians judge whether or not a chronicler, of any era, is in the pocket of his or her employer is how they report failures. The ironic thing is that the gaps in the record tell us quite a bit.

When one considers that the Russians are the ones with all the nukes, this is a very big gap, indeed.

I don't care this is so nasty I wanted to vomit.

I remember being asked if I even wanted to SEE mine and I squealed and told them to get it away from me.

NASTY!

With disgusting video included!

The concept is almost certainly Japanese, but the execution? The execution is almost certainly European. NSFW! Want to see my wife's reaction? Fast forward to the 48 second mark.

Cute chick trying to be polite: check.

Self-same chick doing their level best to P-R-O-V-I-D-E the answer: check

Watching someone who desperately wants to make fun of the idiot and can't quite stop themselves: Check

Really, this is what Ellen deals with on a daily basis.

Scientists have developed a new technique which, in mice at least, allows mammals to convert fat in to CO2 and exhale the result. Wasn't there a fad diet that claimed to be able to do this?

~ I hate life, a bushel and a peck / a bushel and a peck and a rope around the neck:

A taxi driver decapitated himself after tying a rope around his neck and a post before driving off at high speed.

If nothing else I guess he should get points for originality.

J. Pena gets a union-endorsed no-prize for bringing us this literal "shape of things to come."

Actually, I'll be surprised if cars are even this much fun after the greens and the progressives that infest the current Congress are through with them. Meh, what do I care? The newest car I own is nearly ten years old.

“This is something you’re not supposed to believe in if you are a believer in God, but it’s something that I’m a little worried about. But when you’re scared, you keep praying and ask it kindly to leave politely, and pray and hopefully that will work.”

Just in case it won’t leave on its own, Nadya says she’s going to place up to 20 Bibles around the home to ward off any spirits.

She just can't get enough attention.

OM decided that Bud the dog was pretty nice to snuggle up against!

Finally someone has done the legwork required to point out just how differently the MSM reports economic news when a Democrat is in the White House.

Not a single Alfa in the bunch!

What's that?

You say Alfa didn't import enough to even register on the meter?

Philistine.

Another installment in the MechWarrior franchise would appear to be on the way My brother and I spent hours and hours blowing up various teams of "other" nerds with the last version. Will this be a worthy replacement? Only time will tell.

Medicine has come a loooong way since this

“After I had a child, my intimate muscles got unbelievably weak. I read books on Dao and learny ed that ancient women used to deal with this problem using wooden balls,” she said. “I looked around, saw a Murano glass ball and inserted it in my vagina. It took me ages to get it out!”

Ages?

The 3-foot-long (0.9-meter-long) Cretaceous creature had a boxlike skull and beaklike jaw that resemble those of modern parrots, which have beaks that can crack open nuts, a new study found.

That's one big parrot!

But it was still an uphill battle to get the public to openly buy the product, largely because Americans remained embarrassed by bodily functions. In fact, the Scott brothers were so ashamed of the nature of their work that they didn't take proper credit for their innovation until 1902.

Do you fold or crumple?

This might sound like a grand apology. A kind of, "I was wrong about this place, it isn't chock-full of greens and liberals carelessly walking over the homeless people they've regulated out of a job. It's really quite nice." It might sound like that, but it's not. Because San Francisco is the most self-consciously green city I've ever visited, and I have personally witnessed very wealthy citizens walking past the most aggressive beggars I've ever seen in a US city. And I come from the DC area. But it's also a bit more than that. Quite a bit, actually.

Ok, let's just get this part out of the way up-front. Cable cars are proof in wood and cast iron it's possible to be both cool and retarded at the same time. $6 buys you a place in line to watch three completely empty cars watch you back. Eventually, according to what I'm absolutely sure is some sort of inscrutible union schedule, one breaks off from the herd and picks up, oh, about half its complement. Then we all wait and stare at another three completely empty cars just sitting there for (I timed it) no less than 10 minutes.

But it is an interesting wait. The system is powered by two things, one I knew about, and one I didn't. It's called a cable car because there's a big freaking cable under the street which drags these creaking testaments to 19th century tech up and down hills which would cause mountain goats to stop and take a breather. But on the ends of the line, it's powered by people. With just enough leverage two guys are able to push a car onto a medium-sized turn table, then push said turn table 180 degrees until it CLONKS against a hidden stop, causing the cable car itself to wobble back and forth like the badly finished tinker toy it actually is.

Then it's all aboard. The smart tourists break away from the herd like the naughty Disney rejects we are and run around to the far side of the car, where one can hop on a seat next to the brake man or hang off the running board like an extra in a Gene Kelley movie. Then the show starts.

Since labor was once cheap and nostalgia is now expensive, the cars are still controlled exactly the same way as they were when they were introduced some 120 years ago. To wit: clutch to grab and release the cable, medium brake to begin the stop, small brake to finish the stop, and BIG RED-PAINTED BRAKE to, I don't know, keep us from pasting yet another brace of Japanese tourists to the pavement. It was very clanky, very noisy, and smelled of burning sawdust.

But, and I know this may surprise you, simply riding a cable car was not the purpose of the mission. No, for that, we'll do the wavy-effects fade-out to a flashback and cue the girl with the Queens accent...

Ellen: "You're going to San Francisco?!? You MUST go see The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill!!!"

Me: "Do you realize you actually capitalized the letters of a documentary film title as you said it?"

Ellen: "But they're so CYOOT!!!"

And then we wavy ourselves back to the present...

So there I was, at the bottom of one of the most famous, and steepest, hills in this whole damned city. Let's hear it for long distance bike rides, and losing 14 pounds last winter due to new and exciting germs brought home from kindergarten!

Now, being a veteran of the DC zoo, who's hills are not as flamboyantly steep as the Fabulous ones of San Francisco but are much much sneakier, hotter, and more humid, I knew going up a hill to reach the destination is a good sign. You're excited, it's all new, and you've just started out on the journey. So even though it looked like the paving crew got drunk and decided to see if concrete really could stick to walls, it wasn't a terrible walk.

It was, however, a challenging one, which I tried to convey to the parrot fanatic on the other end of the phone.

Me: *puff* *puff* "Boy," *puff*, "this hill is steep."

Ellen: "Do you see any? How many? What color are they? Are they making noise? Are they CYOOT?!?"

Me: *puff* *puff* "Oh look, an Alfa!"

Ellen: "What? Your phone sucks! I can't hear any birds!"

So up I trudged, seeing what were in actual fact much nicer bits of the city than those which surround my hotel. Reminded me of Old Town Alexandria, set on end. And leaned level. With, umm, Asians.

And, as everyone else would expect, when I got to the top of the hill I found lots of tourists, an amazing view, and not a single. F-ing. Parrot.

Ellen: "What? It says you just need to go down the hill and back up. You'll eventually find them."

Me: "..."

So, having the rest of the day off, I waited. I got to watch sail boats tack into the wind, giant container vessels push their way to Japan, and Alcatraz glower on its rock. The Golden Gate Bridge was characteristically half-shrouded in pulled-cotten fog, beautiful until you catch yourself wondering if anyone is tossing themselves off it while you're watching.

And eventually, whilst I was desperately trying to not obviously listen to two girls comparing rather specific things about their boyfriends, five green, squawking, soaring cousins of the green chicken who lives in my house swooped past.

Me: *RING* *RING* "Ellen! You're not going to believe this! I can see--"

"I'm not on the phone right now. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you." **BEEP**

Ah, well. I got to watch a few more fly past, pretty little not-quite-hawks squawking their unmistakable, and loud, squawks back and forth to each other as they came home from whatever hapless vineyard they'd pillaged that day. I then heard several dozen on my way down the world's most treacherous garden walk, before I finally packed it in and headed for home.

Tiring? Duh. Disappointing? A little, but that wasn't the city's fault, or that of the birds. Educational? Well, it changed my opinion of this place from, "there is in fact somewhere nastier than East Baltimore" to, "it isn't all that, but it isn't all bad, either."

I even found another Alfa!

Outback (not the steak house) once served dinosaurs.

Nasty once of course!

The spy pictures, they keep coming. Slightly off-kilter styling: check. Big booty: check. Not likely to be mistaken for anything else: check. Yep, that's an Alfa my wife would love. Except she'd have to give up her PRESENT Milano, or her nearly equally beloved PT Cruiser, so I don't see one of these in our future. Now, if either got smashed in 2012? All bets would then, my friends, be quite off.

Ok, I can think of 5... no... 8... different ways this is just wrong. Mr. Winky does not appreciate being introduced to Mr. Nail Clipper, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE! Mmmkay?

Ok, so my impression of the 3 block radius of San Francisco I've seen so far... it's like Baltimore, only with more transvestites, more Asians, and **MANY** more panhandlers. It smells of sea salt and sewage. *THIS* is the most expensive place to live in the nation?!? Wow. Liberals really are retarded...

I really did not believe this site exist, but it does!

Hello bitches. Welcome to reality. Real moms get frustrated and say things that they regret. Real moms often have no time to shower, rarely get to take a dump alone and need other real moms to lean on. No judgement here, just over the top stories, rants and good drink ideas.

Moms who drink and swear is about reality. There are days when I see some mom all dolled up in the grocery store and I just want to ask her how the hell she pulls it off. I'm usually in my pajamas dragging my whining kids along, yelling , "I SAID NO ! "over and over. I have survived motherhood for the past nine years by leaning on the real moms who convinced me that having a kid (or two) was a good idea. You were right!

This is not a site for the humorless or serious type mom.

Just awesome... LOL!

Posted by Ellen at 06:21 AM | Comments (0)

I like it because it really seems to take the shape down to its basic principles. Most end their lives cut into pieces. Just not pieces this interesting.

Good thing it's extinct!

How cool is this though? Colors?

In a unprecedented discovery, Nicolas Rawlence of the University of Adelaide and a team of researchers found they could extract DNA from the feathers' shafts, and use the genetic material to prove the feathers belonged to four species of the flightless Moa, including the Heavy-footed Moa Pachyornis elephantopus.

With pix goodness!

I guess this fits in this week since Scott is in San Francisco for his yearly work convention!

Scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression in a breakthrough that is expected to open the way to new treatments for two of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people.

Previously doctors had assumed that the two conditions were quite separate. But new research shows for the first time that both have a common genetic basis that leads people to develop one or other of the two illnesses.

Well this is just sad.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Former Titans quarterback Steve McNair has been killed. Police said McNair suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head in downtown Nashville.

A blind man is able to see for the first time in years via what is effectively a tooth implanted in his eye. It would seem the quality of sight is quite high; unfortunately the article doesn't seem to detail just how high it might be.

Neither one of us has any idea what, exactly, to make of this.

Except that, you know, he's a bad dog, and stuff...

Lisa R. gets the coveted Jeff Spicoli no-prize for bringing us news of a rather surprising discovery about who, exactly, is making crop circles "down undah." Beats eating Vegemite!

Best explanation I've ever seen of it. Never have understood why I need to look at a cat's paw under the bathroom door.

New reports are indicating Flight 447 went in belly-first pointing in the right direction. Previous evidence seemed to indicate the aircraft broke up before impact, but this seems to not be the case. Perhaps they'd managed to pull out of their dive, but ran out of altitude before the aircraft had begun to climb again?

Land Rover, of all people, has unveiled what it bills as the "worlds toughest cell phone". Unfortunately no phone is so tough it can't be lost in the side pocket of a back pack. Not that I'd reveal someone who actually did something like that...

Coming soon to a bicycle shop near you: a lantern-like device which uses special LEDs to "draw" a bike lane for you in light as you ride. Anything that makes it easier for a driver to see, and notice, a cyclist is A Good Thing. Exactly how legal it will be, well, I'm not at all sure about that.

An onlooker said: "The men took a lot of care unloading and moving the coffin. They did everything very respectfully."

Wow...sure hope they do it that way, since it's done for everyone else. Caskets aren't cheap. I'm surprised it's not covered in rhinestones.

Meanwhile Jacko's pal and music producer Quincy Jones yesterday vowed NOT to attend the funeral.

Mr Jones said he would not be able to cope with the sadness.

You and the entire continent of Asia.

Article with pix goodness.

Three words: Bikini. Fireworks. Stand. Did I mention how much I love the USA?!? Amazingly, this did not originate in Texas, but rather in Tacoma, Washington. I guess all those stories characterizing the great North West as a bunch of screaming liberal hippies sipping Starbucks in their yurts complaining about "flyover country" and regulating their own children out of the local housing market was a bit of an exaggeration, eh?

Well, probably only a bit...

I'd already decided to wait for the next Transformers movie to come out on video just because it's polling 25% on Rotten. This Transformers "FAQ" just seals the deal. Oh, and Ellen had been calling them "the racist twins" for weeks.

It's a defining moment in a parent's life: Seeing their unborn child's image on an ultrasound for the first time. Now pregnant women could have the chance to hold a life-size model of their unborn baby.

Science can do amazing things.

Yeah, it's dumb, but it's the very first not-quite-official-maybe advertisement for US Alfa Romeos! And the car's pretty neat looking too!

Leave it to the Kiwis to come up with an airline safety tape even I'd pay attention to. Go for the flight attendants wearing body paint. Stay for the flight attendants f-ing up their lines in body paint. Heck it even includes something for the ladies.

No, really:

So it seems that mammalian genomes have been purging themselves from mobile DNA elements just around the KT boundary, give or take a couple of million years. (Or rather: not taking in new elements).

Predictably, nobody's really sure why this is, or what it means.

Mark gets a no-prize that'll complain with impressive theological arguments any time it feels disrespected for bringing us an update on just what, exactly, the Vatican has found buried underneath its altar. To anyone else, the carbon dating results of the human remains found simply do not exclude that they could be of Paul. The rest, as I guess is intended, must be taken on faith.

Making the rounds: an artist has created a "carnivorous clock" which eats bugs to get its power. In the South, we call these "bug zappers."

Jeff Goldblum, as you all will by now know, is dead. How can I be so sure? Just ask him!

The best part is all the footage from Today New Zealand.