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I'm catching up with "Dangerous Catch" on the Discovery Channel, and I was surprised to see a statement from John Hendricks, the founder of Discovery Communications, regarding Uncle Walter:

"There might not be Discovery Channel without Walter Cronkite.  He was one of the first to see the possibility of a 24-hour channel dedicated to high quality storytelling about the world around us.  His guidance, support and commitment were instrumental in securing the resources and distribution to launch Discovery in 1985." 

Hendricks went on to say, "Walter Cronkite remained a friend, mentor and invaluable counselor to me in the [proceeding] 25 years, as well as contributing many outstanding programs to share with our global audience.  I will miss him greatly, and on behalf of Discovery's employees worldwide, we mourn the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Walter Cronkite who inspired the world with his boundless sense of curiosity."


Indeed!

If you'll forgive the ignorant term "ex-Marine" by the Associated Press reporter, here's an interesting story about a fomer U.S. Marine who was attacked by a starving mountain lion in Wyoming.  Mr. Britton fought back with a chain saw and successfully drove off the mountain lion, while sustaining only minor injuries.

Read the story on AZCentral.com.

Don't f*ck with the U.S. Marines!

An amusing story about hacking electronic road signs, complete with TWO warning of the zombie apocalypse.  OK, so hackers modified the road signs to warn us about the zombies.  But no mention of the zombie hordes?  Pranks involving electronic road signs stir worry

Sounds like a guvmint conspiracy, if you ask me.

Current Mood: amused

In the local news today, a woman sliced up a rapist in her home with a sword.  It's a terrible crime, but I'm glad the woman stopped the attempted sexual assault and that the assailant has been caught.

Read the article here

Also in the local news today, in an apparently unrelated incident, an idiot described as a "Samurai swordsman" was arrested for threatening a man with a sword.  "Police said Mendez was under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he threatened to swing the sword at the victim."

What are the odds?

Please vote in the U.S. general election today, if you are eligible and registered to vote.

If you live on the left coast, it's still not too late to vote today.

If you are among the estimated 65,000 fraudulently registered voters in Florida (deceased, duplicates, and ineligible felons such as Joseph Muro, who just signed up to vote and resides in a mental institution for the criminally insane), please do NOT vote.

Remember how few votes decided the U.S. presidential election in 2000?

Your vote counts! Your vote just might make a difference! And more importantly, your vote is needed to cancel out the vote of your scary neighbors and family members:

One of the most compelling arguments for why you should vote (thanks, passionandsoul)

I have no prejudice against those of the dead persuasion, but in most states you do not have the right to vote.

Everyone else, please vote! It's one of the greatest privileges of citizenship in our democratic republic, and in my estimation it's also a responsibility. A civic duty.

Peace out.

I've had some very disturbing conversations recently with others who have lost work this year due to economic conditions. I'm curious how many of my friends and acquaintances have lost work this year so far.

Your individual responses will be held confidential, I will only post the aggregated results.

Poll #1283728 The Economy 2008
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 5

Have you personally lost work in 2008, due to downsizing/RIF, bankruptcy, etc?

Have you had hours cut back, reduced from full time to part time, and/or lost benefits in 2008?

If unemployed at some point in 2008, have you filed for unemployment benefits?

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I just had a conversation earlier this week about how anything healthy can be made bad for you in the pursuit of tasty. For example, a taco salad with deep-fried tortilla shell, cheese and ground beef. Or how about deep-fried Okra?

So here's an article about the Texas State Fair in September, and the competition for the tastiest fried yummies.

Oh, and bacon. Everything's better with bacon. How about chicken-fried bacon strips (one of the eight finalists announced this week)?

Now the fast-food restaurant Sonic has deep-fried cheesecake bites, and Jack in the Box has deep fried macaroni and cheese bites.

If all this sounds good to you, Read all about the Texas State Fair fried foods contest.

Current Mood: hungry

A beautician in Port Orchard (WA) has been offering free "mullet removal" haircuts for five years, without a taker.

When the reporter asked "Could it be that the Kitsap County mullet is extinct?", the beautician responded "People with mullets either love them and want to keep them, or they don't know they have them. They're in mullet denial."

Caution: the linked article may contain links to mullet galleries!

Free Mullet Removal

Yes, copper theft is still at epidemic levels.

The local paper yesterday published a story stating that the City of Mesa spent about $320,000 last year replacing 30 miles stolen electrical wire and other stolen metals including storm drain grates and dry well covers.

Today I'm reading a new story that the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control animal shelter was left without running water in over 100 degree summer heat due to copper piping being stolen.

F'ing A%*holes!

A mail carrier in Washington State is lobbying to have the U.S. Postal Service add a special Utilikilt as a uniform option.

Ironic in that according to the news story Dean Peterson began wearing kilts when his wife brought one back from a trip to Scotland a couple of years ago, but he's wanting to a wear a UK to work near Seattle, where UK is headquartered.

The Associated Press ran the story with some snotty commentary that Britain's Royal Mail does not allow its mail carriers to wear kilts, but the AP story also mentions that the U.S. Postal Service already has plenty of other "approved uniform items that very few mail carriers wear, including a cardigan sweater, vest and pith helmet."

Read the AP story on Yahoo! News

Read the story in the local Seattle Times paper

Also, I like the ending in the Seattle Times article: "He looked quite comfortable."

So apparently an addict tried to stick up a Fry's pharmacy looking for Ritalin, then took off when the pharmacist stepped into the supply room.

Perhaps he forgot why he was waiting? <g>

Read the story on azcentral.com.

Disclaimer: I am NOT an iPhone junkie.

However, I am fascinated by this op/ed piece on Gizmodo about Why We Still Need the iPhone App Black Market. It's an in-depth discussion about Apple's closed system and severely limited integration for external developers.

According to an article on lifehacker.com, the American Library Association has released a digital sliderule for copyright law.

The article on lifehacker.com links to a more detailed article on ARS Technica, Copyright: So complex, here's a slide rule to decode it.

You can also get the tool directly from http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/.

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At least on this one day of the year, please be kind to your sysadmin(s).





If you can read this, thank your sysadmin on SysAdmin Appreciation Day.

So I'm buying discounted prescription medicine for my dogs now through my local people-oriented pharmacy, because with their generic drug discount program I can get the scripts filled cheaper than through my vet's office or through the mail-order pet pharmacies.

On one prescription bottle clearly labeled "CANINE", the pharmacist has slapped on a sticker "May cause drowsiness. Alcohol may intensify this effect. Use care when operating a car or dangerous machinery."

Sorry Sheeba, no more driving Daddy's truck, especially not when you've had a few beers.

I was just reminded of a wonderful speech written by Robert A. Heinlein in 1952 and read by his wife Virginia in 1988 when she accepted on his behalf NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal (awarded posthumously).

From reading Mr. Heinlein's fiction as a young man, I was introduced to colorful characters and new concepts for me such as cynicism and curmudgeonry. (Ed: You know what? I was going to include hyperlinks to definitions for "cynicism" and "curmudgeonry", but if you don't already know what they mean you can practice Copy & Paste and Google them yourself!)

But ironically, while Mr. Heinlein's works of fiction often play with dramatic themes including flawed characters, corrupt politicians and governments, and the low points of humanity such as crime, violence and war, Mr. Heinlein himself seemed to have rather an optimistic viewpoint of humanity and human nature, as you can see for yourself in this speech.

This personal belief is also evident in many examples of his work often labeled as "future history", where as the foundation of a good science fiction story Mr. Heinlein presumes that the human race has survived the Cold War and the threat of a nuclear apocalypse, and continued to explore the stars and develop technology to allow colonization of the stars and terraforming to relieve the pressure of overpopulation on Earth.

You can read the entire (but brief) speech on the Heinlein Society web site: "This I Believe" by Robert A. Heinlein

P.S. By my early teen years I was well acquainted with cynicism and irony on a personal basis. I had a t-shirt that read "I used to be apathetic, but now I don't care." I was surrounded at school by idiots students who didn't know the meaning of apathetic and lacked the curiosity to ask or to look it up in a dictionary. It used to make me angry, until I came to understand the irony in wearing the shirt.  Now I have a new appreciation for the irony. <g>

According to this report, the U.S. passport database system is "is wide open to abuse and unable to prevent or detect unauthorized access."

I can't really claim that I'm shocked, but I am surprised both at the extent of the abuses and the scope of the problem in the lack of safeguards and accountability.

More fun details from the audit:

"Investigators said they were unable to determine precisely how many individuals had access to the system or how many breaches had occurred."

"The inspector general "found many control weaknesses — including a general lack of policies, procedures, guidance and training — relating to the prevention and detection of unauthorized access to passport and applicant information," says the report, which was released in heavily redacted form."

Your tax dollars at work, six years after 9/11.