Dog Art

Cool dogs spotted at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago

Braves (fans) Stink!

For the last several years, at some point between the end of July and the beginning of September, I've had to switch my alliance from rooting for the Mets, to rooting against the Yankees and Braves. I've had much more success at this part of my fandom, as neither team was won a championship lately.

Who knows what will happen this year, but regardless of the outcome of this years World Series, I do at least have this: Braves fans don't wash their hands after they use the bathroom. In a study done recently, it was reported that at Atlanta's Turner Field, 37 percent of men left the bathroom without washing, while 16 percent of the women did.

Meanwhile, lets go Red Sox and Cardinals!

Talk Liek A Pirate Day

Gag Gift Of The Year - "The Ex"

This is an actual knife set you can really buy - It's called "The Ex," and it costs $80 bucks here. Maybe this will be as big as those singing fish were a few years back.

Talkin' Baseball

I don't have a strong feeling either way about the nomination of John Roberts for Chief Justice (though the lack of hysteria on the matter coming from the left is comforting), but I was glad to hear his baseball analogy:

"Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire."

"...I will fully and fairly analyze the legal arguments that are presented. I will be open to the considered views of my colleagues on the bench. And I will decide every case based on the record according to the rule of law without fear or favor to the best of my ability. And I will remember that it's my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat."

There are some MLB umps who could learn a thing or two from this guy!

Hero Of The Week - George W. Bush (seriously!)

Bush Takes Responsibility for Blunders
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush' said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.

Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq'

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.

The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in responding to Katrina.

"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very important question and it's in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond," Bush replied.

He said he wanted to know both what went wrong and what went right.

As for blunders in the federal response, "I'm not going to defend the process going in," Bush said. "I am going to defend the people saving lives."

Full Story

This is the first time I've seen anyone accept responsibility for what happened, and it came from the most unlikely of places - a man who's never wanted to admit mistakes. The cynic in me says this is a response to falling poll numbers, but ultimately it was the right thing to do and I applaud him for it.

Bush On Vacation

I think this Photoshop creation pretty much sums up the country's sentiment towards the President right now.

Katrina damages Bush in two polls
Bush's Approval Rating Is Lowest of His Presidency

An Ominous Issue

In April's Issue of Popular Science, in a section called When Earth Attacks, the magazine looked at potential disasters we face at the hands of Mother Nature. Volcanoes, Landslides, Tsunami's, Earthquakes, and Hurricanes were all covered. The part on Hurricanes was all about what would happen if a Category 5 hit New Orleans.

Although hurricanes of this magnitude slamming directly into New Orleans are extremely rare—occurring perhaps every 500 to 1,000 years—should one come ashore, the resulting storm surge would swell Lake Pontchartrain (a brackish sea adjoining the Gulf of Mexico), overtop the levees, and submerge the city under up to 40 feet of water. Once this happened, the levees would "serve as a bathtub," explains Harley Winer, chief of coastal engineering for the Army Corps’s New Orleans District. The water would get trapped between the Mississippi levees and the hurricane-protection levees. "This is a highly improbable event," Winer points out, "but within the realm of possibility."

What is America's Worst Airport?

It has been quite a year for me with traveling. I've been lucky enough to experience many of our nation's airports. My least favorite airports to travel through are:

Washington D.C. (Dulles)
Charlotte, NC
Orlando, FL

But what is America's Worst Airport? I'll be posting on this subject occasionally to try and get to the answer. A big part of the hassle at airports is the wait time at the security line.
Check out this chart from USA Today that tracks the longest wait times in security lines. They've ranked America's 100 busiest airports to see how they compare.

Surprisingly, little ol' PTI in Greensboro/High Point has the highest average wait time (almost 8 minutes), and the highest percentage of wait times over 10 minutes (over 23 % of the time). Meanwhile, LAX in Los Angeles has the highest maximum wait time (almost 2 and a half hours!)
Going forward, I'll compare frequency of delays, aesthetic appearance, comfort, and any other way to compare airports to find.... America's Worst Airport. (bump, bum, BUM!!!)

Comments, Please!

The Poverty Line

Here's a reality check...

http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/003704.html

Mookie Of The Month - September

Happy Labor Day everyone! Drink Up!














P.S. Please don't e-mail me with complaints or call animal protection on me or anything. I assure you, the bottle was empty!

The Wilburys Live On!

Worth the time it takes to download is this animated video of The Travelling Wilbury's song "Cool Dry Place," featuring lead vocals by Charlie T. Wilbury (A.K.A. Tom Petty). What's really cool is that the video was made by a 13 year old kid named Mitch. Check it out and give the kid some props!
http://www.deviantart.com/view/21898582/

Better stock up on Drano

Back when Al Gore created the internet, I'm not sure he had this in mind:

http://catsinsinks.com/

Why not?

The Big Easy?

You have to view Newsday's slideshow of pictures from the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. I've visited New Orleans twice in the past year, and even stayed at The Hyatt which now looks like a bomb blew it out. Unreal.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sns-hurricane-katrina-pix,0,3092265.photogallery?index=2

My Review: March Of The Penguins

Even the most heartless bastard would enjoy this documentary about penguins! The film, narrated by Morgan Freeman, shows the arduous journey the Emperor Penguin endures every year for one sole purpose: mating. Gotta love it. The filming of this feature must have been is an incredible undertaking, as we watch the penguins huddle through the harshest of winter storms, deep in Antarctica. It's worth the price of admission just for the images of a part of the earth most of us never will get to see. Oh, and a bit of advice for the aforementioned heartless bastards: check this film out on a weekday afternoon, when there's apt to be fewer annoying children talking and running around in the theater. Grade: A


UPDATE (8/30): Jason Kottke tells the interesting story of how the original French edit of the film was reworked to be more appeaing the US audience: http://www.kottke.org/05/08/march-penguins-remake

What the fuss is all about...

I recently was forwarded an essay titled "What's All the Fuss?" by Doug Patton, where the author chastises the media for investigating mishandlings of the Koran at Guantanomo Bay. Basically his position is that our soldiers can do no wrong since they are fighting a dangerous enemy. He also has made a distorted correlation between 9/11 and the war in Iraq...

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/dpatton/2005/dp_0606p.shtml

What I found most interesting about what he doesn't care about, is respecting the Koran while it's illegal to own a bible in Saudi Arabia. It's true that it's illegal for Christians to prostelitize and distribute Bibles in Saudi Arabia. The CIA Factbook says of the country, "The Government prohibits public non-Muslim religious activities. Non-Muslim worshippers risk arrest, imprisonment, lashing, deportation, and sometimes torture for engaging in overt religious activity that attracts official attention." http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2002/14012.htm

It's evident that Christians, and Jews are not welcome in Saudi Arabia and in fact Saudi Arabia is a hotbed for religious extremism. I wonder if Doug Patton cared when George Bush was seen walking hand in hand through a rose garden with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah when 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia?
ANYWAY... What the fuss is all about is that Saudi Arabian hijackers inspired/directed by Osama Bin Laden flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and instead of severing political ties with Saudi Arabia or even engaging in military tactics against that country we instead invade an impotent Iraq and, as Doug Patton says, wait for Osama to "turn himself in."

Yes, we are at war. But are we at war with the right people?

Hypocrite Of The Month - Pat Robertson

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said that the U.S. should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Since the statements caused an uproar, he has tried to say his statements were taken out of context, however the meaning of his statements are pretty straightforward:

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it"

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said. "We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/23/robertson.chavez.1534/index.html

Now, some of Pat Robertson's (hopefully dwindling) supporters may say that they agree with his suggestions, but agreeing with his statements is irrelevant. What is relevant is that here is a man who claims to be a man of God, suggesting murder as a viable option. I'm pretty sure there is something in the Bible about killing. Hmmm...

Pulp Fiction 2 - President Koons

Christopher Walken is running for President in 2008.

I haven't been this excited since Andy Kaufman announced he wasn't dead.

What Is Rollyo?

Dave Pell of davenetics has created a new site called rollyo with the tagline "Roll Your Own." He is asking people to help beta test the new site, but he isn't saying what the site is. He asks us to sign up to help out based only on the logo (which is a cool one, as logos go) and faith in the power of Dave. I signed up because I dig his blogs and figure it might be cool to get in on whatever this is in the early stages and be part of helping it grow, whatever it is.

http://rollyo.com/
http://davenetics.com/2005/08/roll-your-own/

I need To Go To Japan

http://www.sapporobeer.jp/CGI/news/index.cgi?key=pop1&seq=759