Public Service Announcement

Gukanjima

I've found the perfect island hide-out, off the shore of Japan. It's a bit of a fixer upper, but I bet it shines up like a new penny!

Youtube Howser M.D.

Oooof. I'm sore from laughing. It's probably not THAT funny. But I hit it at the right time of day with the right blood-sugar levels. Even better seen twice!!


Also the not so safe for work ALF.

Sportsman Bear

One of the fun things about having a baby is getting to go toy shopping again.

I intend to see to it that my child knows the importance of keeping and arming bears!

ASAT

This is an interesting read, in my 'umble opine:

Chinese Test ASAT?

Not to mention the root site; lots 'o' meaty tids in there.

Obligatory blog post eye candy:

schoolboard@fwps.org

That's the email address for the Federal Way School Board. I'd encourage y'all to drop them a line. They should know that we're not all Frosty Hardison's out here. Here's my email:

To Whom It May Concern:

I'm writing you today to express my profound disappointment in your decision to severely limit the circumstances under which your students may view the recent documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." This is a dunder-headed decision of the highest possible magnitude.

The facts presented in the documentary are just that - facts. The idea that humans have changed the Earth's climate is now an accepted scientific fact, and has been endorsed by all accepted, accredited, legitimate scientific bodies.

In fact the only "scientists" who deny a human impact on Earth's climate are thinly-veiled paid shills for various resource-extraction companies, whose research methods have been examined and scorned by all legitimate scientific bodies. You'll hear less and less from these shills, because even oil companies have started to face facts, and have accordingly ended their support for their former propaganda artists.

I gather the impetus for your poorly considered decision came from an email you received from one "Frosty Hardison." I gather further that Mr. Hardison, father of seven (!) is a creationist, who believes the Earth is 14,000 years old.

In caving to Mr. Hardison's demands that you not expose his many, many children to views that contradict his own, you have displayed a truly notable lack of moral courage. You have bent over backward to accomodate a man who lives his life by the precepts laid down by the elders of a wandering, Sephardic tribe from several thousand years ago. In so bending, you chose to ignore the intervening thousands and thousands of years of scientific progress; however haphazard said progress has been.

Even worse, you've tried to mask the true effect of your actions behind doublespeak. One of your members even went so far as to suggest that limiting speech - by restricting "An Inconvenient Truth" - actually encouraged debate. I was not surprised to learn this board member was an attorney. Only an attorney could come up with such a piece of non-sensical frippery.

What's next? What other Christian precepts will you choose to impose on your student body? Your decision is one more paving stone on the road to a theocracy. I am shocked, dismayed, and angered by your decision. From here on out, when I hear the words, "Federal Way" I will think "ignorant, cowardly, Janus-faced appeasers."

Good luck with your decision. You will surely need it.

Kansas, meet Federal Way

Turns out "An Inconvenient Truth" isn't truthy enough for the Federal Way School District. Read all about it!

Buy Sealand

Looks like a bunch of information-wants-to-be-free zealots are out to buy our favorite micronation!

Action Squad

I don't remember if anyone has sent this link out yet. . . If not, well, it's about time.


I'll see you underground!

What We Know

It's becoming a bit of a tradition for me to mark the changing of the calendar year by reviewing the BBC's annual list of 100 things we didn't know last year.

The highlights of 2006:

In the "Language is weird" category:

• Panspermia is the idea that life on Earth originated on another planet.
• The medical name for the part of the brain associated with teenage sulking is "superior temporal sulcus".
• The clitoris derives its name from the ancient Greek word kleitoris, meaning "little hill".
• Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs is the term for people who fear the number 666.

In the "Faith in My Government" category:

• US Secret Service sniffer dogs are put up in five-star hotels during overseas presidential visits.
• In the 1960s, the CIA used to watch Mission Impossible to get ideas about spying.
• George W. Bush's personal highlight of his presidency is catching a 7.5lb (3.4kg) perch.

In the "Useless Trivia" category:

• The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions.
• Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.
• Cows can have regional accents, says a professor of phonetics, after studying cattle in Somerset.
• The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface.

And finally:

• In Bhutan, government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags.