from steve jobs: the I Rack! funny video

thanks sharon for this great video on Apple's new product, the "I" Rack.

soprano's end

So the Soprano's is over - disappointment! At least I was right - Tony doesn't die. I had AJ killing Phil, but that didn't happen. I liked the episode before, when Tony breaks the guy's jaw who threatened his daughter, then goes to therapy with his suicidal son, only to notice the guy's tooth in the cuff of his pants! I loved it! The writers for that show are great! Here is the restaurant that the shows ends with - family place, not a place for an assassination, so I think Tony's safe, at least for that final night. Noah: You and Chika should eat there! Tony says they have great onion rings!

scooter Libby love letters

I love this! Character letters of reference for Scooter Libby, sent to the judge who sentenced him. How would you like Donald Rumsfeld to write a letter of support for you (war criminal)? Or Henry Kissigner (war criminal)? Or paul wolfowitz? The wolf man says he wonders how scooter libby's life would have been different if scooter never met him....how would all our lives be different if NONE of us every heard of you Paul? You should have stayed at Yale as a law prof...think of all the lives in Iraq that would have been saved if you stayed on campus!?

cat camera

Here is a guy who put a camera on his cat, and now he can see the world as his cat sees it....

talk like a pirate day

Wednesday Sept 19th is Talk like a Pirate Day: here are some expressions to get you going:

"Arrrgh-Bring me a servin' wench to bid me me pleasures!"
"Argh-lad, is that Lee Elliott over there - or am I as mad as a salted herring?"
"Bast yer eyes upon me?"

"Avast! A Team Builders meeting off our schedule's port bow! Scuttle yer productivity, mateys, and prepare to be bored-ed!"
"No increase in me pay? Arrr, boss, let me tell ye where ye can store that hook!"
"Hold that elevator, ye whoreson bilge rat!"
"Ye bent my ear with yer lubberly questions WITHOUT tryin a reboot first? Arrr! It's the plank for you, ye mangy cur... and thank ye for calling Microsoft Tech Support!"
"Avast, ya scurvy knave! Brave be ye, for certain, but arrr ye willin' ta die fer that parking spot?"
"Aye, if it's a large treasure chest and amazin' booty ye seek, fix yer gaze upon the receptionist."
"Boss, I'll be borrowin' a coupla doubloons from petty cash fer some Ho Ho's and a bottle of rum."
"Aaaarrrrrghhh! Who among us floated the air mead?"
"Avast, ye demon copy machine! Taste the wrath of my arse!"

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

My cable finally got connected, and I can now get HBO premium movies - free! (nothing is really free....) anyway I saw this movie again, and it is truly great. here is the IMDB link sign up and and you can read the message boards. "I've been Clementined!" one user explains. He dated a woman at work, fell in love, then she dumped him for another guy, and now acts like nothing ever happened between them, and he has to see her 40 hrs a week 50 weeks a year, and the poor guy's heart is broken! He warns readers not to date someone at work , at least not fall in love with the person I guess.

Related (unrelated) story: When I was at Oklahoma state the story was that the head of the English dept had a running conflict with two faculty members, who were married to each other: they voted against him together, argued against him together at dept meetings, generally made his life miserable. Then they went through a terrible divorce - lawsuits, recriminations, restraining orders - the whole disaster (as Zorba the Greek would say - "I was married once, wife, children, house, the whole disaster!") at any rate after the divorce the Dept Head would torture these two people by assigning them offices next to each other and ALWAYS putting them on the same committees so they would have to work together! Funny story. Life as hell. La vie est un naufrange!

The Iceman; murdered

Here is the final word on how the Iceman, the bronze age man found in switzerland, was killed. I have often expressed that this man should be buried, perhaps replicating what we think his tribe would have provided for him as a burial ritual. Most people think that's nuts...but doesnt he deserve some dignity in death? They researched him enough, now please bury the man, say a pagan prayer and lay him to rest....

A prehistoric hunter known as Oetzi whose well-preserved body was found on a snow-covered mountain in the Alps died more than 5,000 years ago after being struck in the back by an arrow, scientists said in an article published Wednesday.


Researchers from Switzerland and Italy used newly developed medical scanners to examine the hunter's frozen corpse to determine that the arrow had torn a hole in an artery beneath his left collarbone, leading to a massive loss of blood.

That, in turn, caused Oetzi to go into shock and suffer a heart attack, according to the article published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Even today, the chances of surviving such an injury long enough to receive hospital treatment are only 40 percent, according to the article.

Vote Caging - disenfranchisement of voters

Monica Goodling, the lawyer from the Attorney General's office testifying about the Federal Prosecutors' firings, mentioned the term "vote caging," and the Senators didn't follow through with questions. What is vote caging? Here is an example from the 2000 Florida Campaign:

The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked "Do not forward" to voters' homes. Letters returned ("caged") were used as evidence to block these voters' right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and—you got to love this—American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.

Why weren't these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation—and the soldiers were overseas.

So vote caging is a why of disenfranchising voters. Yea America! We hold elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, but our President's own party tries to disenfranchise voters at home, some of who are soldiers on active duty!

Larry Flynt - defender of our First Amendment!

Here is a story about Larry Flynt, defender of our civil liberties and free speech. He already has the goods on a number of politicians and he uses it as leverage for his own political agenda. Remember when he confronted Rep Henry Hyde, 80 yrs old, with information that Hyde had an affair forty years earlier during his first marriage? Hyde said, "I am not going to apologize for my reckless youth." Reckless youth! He was middle aged at the time! But I guess when you are 80yrs old looking back at age 40 seems like childhood!

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt offered $1 million Sunday to anyone who could provide proof of an illicit sexual encounter with a high-ranking government official.


In a full-page advertisement in The Washington Post, Flynt asked for "documented evidence of illicit sexual or intimate relations with a Congressperson, Senator or other prominent officeholder." He said he would pay up to $1 million for material that could be verified and published in Hustler.

Flynt ran a similar ad in October 1998, during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to the impeachment of
President Clinton.

The publisher took credit for the demise of Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., who admitted he had had extramarital affairs after word got out that Flynt was investigating him. Livingston announced his resignation in December 1998, days before he had been expected to become speaker of the House.