Christmastime is here

Big Bad Wolf

Earth-like Planet Discovered

Scientists have discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting a red dwarf star 20 light-years away. What do you think?

Randy Kirkland,
Cantor
"If it's Earth-like, then it's probably near destruction and of no use to us."

Eirc Steinway,
Social Worker
"How Earth-like? 'Temperate and able to sustain life' Earth-like or 'completely overrun with self-absorbed assholes' Earth-like?"

Melody Thorsen,
Tour Guide
"Did scientists find any tall, single men on that Earth? I've pretty much exhausted my possibilities here."

If The Heat Doesn't Kill The Elderly, I Will

If The Heat Doesn't Kill The Elderly, I Will

Sometimes ya just gotta feel like a nerd

Hamas vs. Fatah, Round: ???

Well, it seems these two groups are at it again... and so soon after the formation of the 'Unity Government' for Palestine. So far, 15 people have lost their lives and dozens wounded in armed clashes that erupted in Gaza today (or yesterday, for those of us on GMT -08:00) . It seems that the whole power-sharing thing was never really hashed out. Its such a shame, too because Israel and the (majority of) Arabs are the closest they've been in years to making peace, the highlight thereof would be Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from West Bank, Gaza and Golan, which Israel has occupied and controlled since '67.
So why these renewed hostilities? It seems that both sides are convinced that the other is trying to undermine them, so they've both been preparing for these clashes since the last ceasefire, or whatever the Mecca Accords was supposed to be. The irony is that probably one of the largest hinderences to peace in this region of the Middle East is us, err... U.S. Whether it be our government's unwaivering support for Israel, or our embargo on the Palestinian (Hamas) government, which has really done a number on their schools and hospitals:).

Two videos are included. the first is an Palestinian children's 'School House Rock-esque' video, which claims that, among other things, there aren't any tunnel ops in Pal, and Israel is full of it.
The second one is a video of a Hamas tunnel operation, with a Hamas watermark. Interesting.

I love the way De Niro kicks this guy.

Merry Christmas, Sh**er's full.

Random Funny Pictures

Bad Parenting

Definitely Lost in Translation

North Korean general cracks George W. Bush joke

Tue May 8, 6:29 AM ET

SEOUL (Reuters) - In North Korea, where cracking a joke about the country's leader could see you, well, die laughing, poking fun at the U.S. president is obviously not as serious.

As military chiefs from both sides of the Korean peninsula met on Tuesday for talks, a general from the North started proceedings by telling a joke at George W. Bush's expense.

"I recently read a piece of political humour on the Internet called 'saving the president'," Lieutenant-General Kim Yong-chol was quoted as saying in pool reports from the talks.

He then retold the old yarn about Bush who goes out jogging one morning and, preoccupied with international affairs, fails to notice that a car is heading straight at him.

A group of schoolchildren pull the president away just in time, saving his life, and a grateful Bush offers them anything they want in the world as a reward.

"We want a place reserved for us at Arlington Memorial Cemetery," say the children.

"Why is that?" he asks.

"Because our parents will kill us if they find out what we've done."

The South Korean generals appeared befuddled as to what to make of the humour -- perhaps not surprisingly given that the North usually only refers to the United States and its officials in vitriolic, highly politicised language.

In the North, where Kim Jong-il wields absolute power, former refugees have said attempts to demean him mean certain punishment or even execution.

Where's a Good Samaritan when you need them??

Motorists drove around dead body on road

Tue May 8, 10:11 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - More than two dozen Israeli motorists maneuvered around the dead body of a road accident victim lying in the middle of a busy intersection, failing to stop to help in an incident captured by a traffic camera.

In footage broadcast by Israeli television stations on Monday and in a series of photographs on newspaper front pages, motorcyclist Moshe Yisraeli was seen trying to squeeze between two trucks at a junction on a highway near Tel Aviv Sunday.

He never made it. The camera captured his body lying near the centre of the four-way intersection, his motorcycle meters away on its side.

Some 30 cars and trucks slowed down and then carefully drove around the prone motorcylist in a stream of traffic that continued for nearly two minutes before a driver stopped his vehicle and approached the body.

An ambulance crew later pronounced Yisraeli, 63, dead at the scene.

Israelis have a reputation for rushing to the scene of accidents or Palestinian bombings to help victims, and the apparent apathy shown in Yisraeli's case touched off a public debate over whether Israeli society has become uncaring.

"It's hard for me to think that no one helped him. I prefer to believe that people were in shock and didn't understand what had happened," Yisraeli's daughter, Tali, told reporters.

jesus@heaven.il

Am I the only one out there who recieves no less than 5 fwds a day from my mom? Its rediculous. A few months ago I called her on it, because she sent one out insulting mexicans, and I was like, what the heck, mom? how do you think I got here. But I digress...
She sends out things to all her address book. She sends out messages without reading them, and thats her excuse...Oh, I didnt read it. really? And the bulk of her stuff is filled with religious propaganda, and I'm apparently going to hell because I didnt forward it. Sorry, Jesus, but if you had email, you'd understand.
Oh, well. Maybe I'm just upset because my favorite militant islamic mickey mouse look-alike was yanked off the air today.
In addition to that, it looks like air travel in the US is about to get a whole lot more fun as Israeli Airport security methods studied. Price of freedom, eh.

Todd Packer

from last fall (Autumn)

Iraq Now Longer Than WWII

The war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the U.S.'s involvement in World War II. What do you think?

Helen Wright,
Meat Packer
"The Iraq war may last longer, but I guarantee you that both wars will end the same way: with the complete destruction of the Japanese."

Leo Daives,
County Assessor
"Hooray! Does this mean that we are now the greatest generation?"

Dylan Mitchell,
Systems Analyst
"Yes, but did we support our troops then as much as we do today?"

Ahh, The Gap (careful, its loud)

Gap Unveils New "For Kids By Kids" Clothing Line

Looks like good, clean family fun

(whats been billed as) The Greatest Batusi ever

This Just In: My Boys Can Swim

So, I found out Monday that soon, there'll be a little robowski; Kase told me by placing a huge message on the Sand City sand dune, and that in Jan. 08, I'll be a father (and not just of dogs, this time). At first I thought it was a joke and I didnt get it. But when it finally sank in, well, its still sinking in, but its amazing. I'm writing tonite from DFW because we flew in to tell our parents in person. I didnt know if they'd figure it out beforehand, but we totally suprised them. and I didnt even use the phrase 'yup, I knocked up yer dawter.' until now.

Teen Girl Squad

See more at homestarrunner.com

And, In case you've never seen it...

LOOKWELL

It was bound to happen...

Talladega track bans 14 fans for life

May 1, 2007

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) -- Talladega Superspeedway has permanently banned 14 fans from buying tickets at the speedway following their arrests Sunday for throwing objects on the track after Jeff Gordon's victory in the Aaron's 499.

The fans were charged with disorderly conduct Sunday and posted bond at the track's jail facilities, Talladega County Sheriff Jerry Studdard said. Track officials can't prevent the 14 fans from buying tickets through a third party.

A number of fans began throwing beer cans after Gordon won the race under caution, passing the late Dale Earnhardt -- a Talladega favorite -- in career wins.

Talladega officials had issued warnings before the race that fans caught throwing objects over the fence separating the grandstands from the track would be arrested.

Superspeedway president Grant Lynch said identifying other fans who threw objects was harder than he had imagined.

``At a baseball game where everybody is sitting down, it's easy to see someone stand up and throw an object onto the field,'' Lynch said. ``I was looking at a section that probably had 300 people in it, and they were all standing up, waving their arms and their caps, and I couldn't pinpoint where any of the objects were coming from.''

Track officials added security following a similar incident after Gordon's victory in 2004, and said they will review Sunday's incident to see if more changes are needed.

Fans are allowed to bring small coolers into the track, and also can buy canned beverages at concession stands.

Suck it, Shakespeare

I'm so sick of this guy. Apparently its his birthday, or something, because I'm hearing about it all over the place. Well, actually just on NPR today, but still, I had my fill. Nobody even knows when his birthday really is, we just assume that its this week. Its celebrated on the same day as his death.
Maybe I just don't get it. I tried to like it. Back in high school, when it was forced on us, I tried to go with the flow. It didnt work. And for some reason, he proliferates (not literally, I'm pretty sure he was gay). I can respect that his plays could provide some sort of written record of his time, but its debated that Romeo and Juliet was taken from another story, etc.
Thats the end of my rant. The Office was great tonite, and I kinda paid attention to 30 Rock. Scrubs is about to start, and we here on the west coast are the last on the continent to see it. Ok, it started.

СПЕЦНАЗ

Great СПЕЦНАЗ training video.

With my face

Boris Yeltsin Dead

Boris Yeltsin Dead

Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected president in Russia after the fall of the Communist regime, died early Monday. What do you think?

Francis Cooke,
Systems Analyst
"History will forever remember him as the man who helped bring Russia from one form of extreme corruption to another."

Mitch Lomax,
Real Estate Broker
"Yeltsin will be fondly recalled as a man who was alive when some historically significant things happened."

Jon Pemborrough,
Waste Removal
"Dasveedanya, tavareech…uh…man, my Russian has really gone down the crapper since I stopped spying on them."

No Brainer of the Week:

U.S. Congress may act to keep guns from mentally ill

Such a no brainer, yet such a divisive issue. The next step will be to overhaul the mental healthcare system, and (possibly) a redefinition as to what constitutes being mentally ill. Of course, from age 18-25, who exactly is 'sane'?

Earth Day 2007!!!

Be Patient, its worth it...

Thought this was great

I Have A Huge Crush On My Captor

There and back

Kase and I returned to the West Coast yesterday, safe and sound. Here are some pics and ballyhoo:

Sir George on pillow, pleading for us not to leave. We left anyway.

We arrived to DFW earlier than scheduled, (الحمد لله ) just before the storm hit. Here's an ominous cloud...

And a small piece of hail.

But in the end, Maelie still got to open her presents.

A nice view of the Salinas Valley from our descent into SJC.

Please return seat backs and tray tables to their up-right and locked position

So Kase and I are heading back to DFW tomorrow for the weekend. I thought that this would be appropriate:



Hope you guys have a nice Apr. 13th, 14th and 15th.

What I (eventually hope to) do for a living

10 Years, Man

So, 10 years have passed, and the 'Dipes, your mom's backing up' joke is still funny. Congratulations, Universe. You win.

Iran Releases British Sailors

Iran released 15 sailors it had held captive for nearly two weeks, claiming they had entered Iranian waters. What do you think?

Shelly Fontana,
Nail Technician
"Maritime borders are very difficult to determine. I find myself accidentally drifting into the waters of my neighbor's bathtub all the time."

Bert Sutherland,
Systems Analyst
"Considering the way things are going in the Middle East, I'm going to go ahead and call this an American victory."

Zack Skinner,
Box Office Representative
"Oh, that's just fantastic. Now who the hell is going to buy my preemptively crafted 2007 hostage tragedy memorabilia?"

It sounds like its from The Onion...

Coworkers Judged by iTunes Playlists

By LiveScience Staff

posted: 04 April 2005
12:16 pm ET

Office workers who share music via Apple Computer's iTunes software track their coworkers' comings and goings and form opinions about them based on their playlists. The opinions are not always what the sharer intended, a new study finds. The sharing phenomenon can nonetheless create a community of sorts among coworkers who otherwise barely know each other. The study, of an unnamed mid-sized U.S. company, was funded in part by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). "People sharing music in our study were aware of the comings and goings of others in the office because they noticed the appearance and disappearance of others’ music on the network," said Amy Voida, a Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech who led the research. "They imagined what other people might think about their music collections, and they were aware of the musical holes left when someone left the company." Employees used their music libraries to consciously portray an self-image. "I just went through it to see if there was not like stuff that would be like, I don’t know, annoying, that I would not like people to know that I had," said one worker who, believing his music library to be "not very cool," added other tunes in an effort to create a balanced portrayal of himself. One guy worried what his colleagues might think of the Justin Timberlake and Michael McDonald music that was in his library but which he'd bought for his wife. Big Brother got in on the game, too. The music files reside on each employees computer and, when shared with people who sign up, are streamed to other members' computers across a local area network. A manager joined one music-sharing group. "When the manager showed up and could start looking through people’s music collections, people began to speculate that the manager’s presence might be influencing the way others were managing what music they shared," said Beki Grinter, a Georgia Tech associate professor of computing. Other findings: People sometimes claim to listen to others' libraries when in fact they aren't interested and don't listen. Some people think their own libraries are unique, while coworkers might view them as just like many others. Lastly, nobody likes an anonymous deejay. "Most people didn’t want to listen to anonymous collections, even though they didn’t always want to talk to the playlists’ creators," Grinter said. "They went to quite a bit of trouble to figure out which playlists belonged to whom. It’s a peculiar social phenomenon. They don’t want to live in a completely anonymous world, especially in the workplace." The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) participated in the study, which will be presented Tuesday at the Computer-Human Interaction conference in Portland, Ore.

Terrabyte, Anyone?

New Hard Drives Hold a Terabyte of Data By Lamont Wood Special to LiveScience posted: 08 April 2007 11:34 pm ET

Just when you got used to hard drives with hundreds of gigabytes (hundreds of billions of bytes) they do it: make one with a terabyte (a trillion bytes). Yes, you can now get a terabyte hard drive on a desktop PC. Breaking the ice with a Hitachi drive was Dell, with “Area 51” game-oriented machines from its Alienware subsidiary. The 1T option initially costs $500. In case you’re wondering, as printed text a terabyte would occupy 100 million reams of paper, consuming some 50,000 trees. It is enough to hold 16 days (not hours) of DVD-quality video, or a million pictures, or almost two years worth of continuous music. You might not have any songs that last for two years, but that’s irrelevant, indicated Henry Baltazar, storage analyst for The 451 Group, a technology analyst firm in San Francisco. “There will be a demand for it, since a lot of people have digital media, like movies, pictures and music,” Baltazar told LiveScience. “Larger devices will become more commonplace, and we will see the same kind of transition from gigabyte to terabyte drives as we previously saw from megabyte to gigabyte drives—in fact, the move from 500 gigabytes to a terabyte has taken longer than expected.” The leap from 500G to 1T required a breakthrough in “areal density” (how tight the bytes are packed on the surface of the disk), according to Doug Pickford, a marketing executive at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The trick, he explained, was to move to Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR), where each bit is a perpendicular rather than a linear magnetized spot on the disk—as if the bits were standing up rather than lying down. Currently, areal density is growing at about 35 to 40 percent per year, and the techniques used to create the 1T drive are expandable to make a 5T drive, Pickford said. More work will be needed to surpass the 5T hurdle, but he foresaw no physical limitations until drives reach a capacity of at least 50T. At that point, they’ll hold about a century of music. Incidentally, for planning purposes, the next level is the petabyte (a quadrillion bytes); and then the exabyte (one quintillion bytes); and then the zettabyte (one sextillion bytes); and then the yottabyte (one septillion bytes.)

My first computer's hard drive was like 300 MBs. The memory card for my cellphone is bigger than that...

Happy Easter From R&K

I had to delete this post for a day, but now its back up. here it is in its entirity:

So I was talking to my mom as I was driving in to school this morning; I was telling her how I was doing in school and about my upcoming test, when we approached the subject of whether or not I'd like to try another language, like Chinese. I told her that I probably didnt have it in me to do such a tough language, but I would like to learn Italian and work in Italy for a while. She said, 'naw, theres no need for you to do that' and I said, 'yeah, I think that it'd be cool to work over there.' then she said, 'Well, I might as well tell you, Gorgene (my aunt, her sister) and I have a brother.'
Apparently, before my Grandpa came back to the states after the end of WWII, he had himself an Italian ladyfriend (what G.I. didnt) and there may be a 65 year old Italian man out there with the old 'Mitchell Swagger' in his step. Grandpa came back after the war and met my Grandma, and a few weeks later, they were married. They soon had my mom and my aunt, and never told them about my Grandpa's son. The secret went with both of them to their graves, but, as my mother found out from a cousin who knew that there was, in fact, a son, and that on Grandpa's deathbed, Grandma asked Grandpa if he wanted her to find his son. Grandpa said no. that was 1988, I believe. Grandma died in Fall 2000, and never said peep.
While cleaning out their house around 2001-2002, mom and Gloria (a.k.a. Gorgene, don't ask me why) discovered a letter, written in Italian, and a picture of a boy. Mom has the letter, and Gloria has the picture. I asked my mom to fax me the letter so I could have it translated, and tonite I talked to Gloria, and she is trying to locate the picture. She told me that the back of the pic is inscribed something to the effect of 'Papa, don't forget us'. She also told me that my cousins don't know.
I'm not one to make mountains out of molehills, but I feel like this is something that they should know. I called Aunt Gloria to tell her that I knew, and asked her if the guys knew. When she said no, I told her that I would like to talk to them about this, and asked if she would like to tell them, or if I could bring it up. She said that she would tell them, and I respect that. If they happen to stumble across this post before Aunt Gloria tells them about their new uncle, I claim no responsibility.

Posted by Rob at 3:31 PM

Lightning Crashes...

Today has been a tough one, and there are still 6 hours left to go. It started out wrong this morning whenever I poured sour milk in my cereal, without realizing that it had soured. Even though today was the sell-by date, I still expect to be able to enjoy the milk on that date. On my way to work, Kase called me and told me that she had left her keys in my glove-box, so I had to exit the highway and turn back. It was ok, because I was heading in early to finish (read: start) some homework. Even though I had to return home and start again, I made it to school with time to spare to complete my homework. My morning had made it in to my homework, as it was an assignment to write about anything.
The morning went ok. We got out a few minutes early for lunch, so I went back home to get Ollie to take her to the groomers, and grabbed some work-out clothes for this afternoon. On my way back to school, the song Lightning Crashes came on the radio. Here’s where it gets difficult:
I had a good friend named Jaime Mckalsky a few years ago, when I was here in Monterey studying Russian. She was a cool chick, a couple of years older than me. She was from Minnesota. She had dated my friend, and fellow classmate, M. Harper, and they were both in the Army. She and I were pretty close, in the fact that we had daily interaction in the classroom. On one of our class picnics at Veteran’s Park, Zachar, another classmate, and I were playing our guitars, and she asked if I knew anything by Live. I started playing Lightning Crashes, and Jaime was happy.
After my bike accident took me out of that class, I didn’t see much of Jaime anymore. Whenever we crossed paths, we’d ask how class was going, and that was pretty much it. A few months later, we went our separate ways and I lived and worked in San Antonio.
Jaime died in Afghanistan in October, 2003. I didn’t find this out today, but about a year and a half ago. I know that it’s silly to be writing about it now, and I probably sound a lot like Walter, but damn it, Jaime was a cool chick. She was killed in Afghanistan as she was inspecting a car, with people in it, as it blew up. I don’t want to cheapen it by adding some agenda like ‘she died doing the right thing’ or ‘she was the Nth soldier killed in the war on terror.’ She’s not a statistic. She was a cool chick. She did a great Frau Farbissina from Austin Powers. You’d laugh. Although she was single, she had a family who loved her. She has friends who mourn her loss, and who will never forget her. Jaime was a cool chick.

Lightning crashes
A new mother cries
Her placenta falls to the floor

The angel opens her eyes
The confusion sets in
Before the doctor can
Even close the door

Lightning crashes
An old mother dies
Her intentions fall to the floor

The angel closes her eyes
The confusion that was hers
Belongs now to the
Baby down the hall

Oh, now feel it
Coming back again
Like a rolling thunder
Chasing the wind
Forces pulling from the
Center of the earth again
I can feel it

Lightning crashes
A new mother cries
This moment she`s
Been waiting for

The angel opens her eyes
Pale blue colored eyes
Presents the circle
Puts the glory out to hide, hide

Oh, now feel it
Coming back again
Like a rolling thunder
Chasing the wind
Forces pulling from the
Center of the earth again
I can feel it, I can feel it

I can feel it
Coming back again
Like a rolling thunder
Chasing the wind
Forces pulling from the
Center of the earth again
I can feel it

Last WWI Navy vet dies in Md. at age 105

German High Command loyal to Kaiser Wilhelm claims responsibility

You are forgiven

London 2000

Something I found in my scrapbook that I made when I
failed Engrish and was placed in Mrs. Droste's class.
[predates (most) digital cameras]