A bunch of random thoughts and links--


Some great things to know if you have young kids, from our friends Tom and Ray Maggliozzi (Highly Recommended) (Real Audio link)

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Just because nobody understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.

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How is 'speculative fiction' different from 'science fiction?' Hear this Real Audio link of Margaret Atwood responding that in 'speculative fiction,' "there's no talking squid." The link is an interview on Minnesota Public Radio about Atwood's books The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake.

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There's a controversy back home about a trail that goes through a mountain nature preserve and how open to the public it should be. Pretty normal, no? Think of a very conservative and dogmatic area fighting over the rights to...... wait for it....... the Bump and Grind Trail. The best comment is at the end of the article by a leading pro-access hiker: "I know people that hike it for their health. I know people that hike it for spiritual reasons. I know people that get up at four in the morning to get up there."

Priceless

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I've been looking through Congressional Directories and found that legislators can get together to address some important issues:

Congressional Fatherhood Task Force
Congressional Manufactured Housing Caucus
Congressional Wine Caucus
Congressional Fire Services Caucus
Congressional Prevention Coalition
Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus
Congressional Privacy Caucus
Congressional Automotive Performance and Motor Sports Caucus
Senate Sweetener Caucus
Senate Beef Caucus

The Prevention Caucus is about infectious disease prevention, but there's one, the Congressional Bearing Caucus, that's puzzling me. It's most likely ball bearings, but its description is suspiciously vague:

Purpose: The mission of the Congressional Bearing Caucus is to support the domestic bearing industry, which plays a critical role in preserving national security and our industrial base.

Outside maybe the wine caucus, it paints a pretty compelling picture of our legislature, doesn't it?

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How easy is it to differentiate between dictators and sit-com characters? Find out here. (Thanks Josh)

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A while ago, I was bored so I actually read one of the disclaimer for one of the virus programs I was installing on my new computer. It read, in part:

You hereby acknowledge that the software may not be available due to any number of factors including, without limitation, periodic system maintenance, scheduled or unscheduled, acts of god, technical failure of the software, telecommunications infrastructure, or delay or disruption attributable to viruses, denial of service attacks, increased or fluctuating demand, actions and admissions of third parties, or any other cause reasonably outside the control of the company.

"Acts of god" aside, notice that the antivirus company specifically rules out any responsibility for virus or denial of service attacks (which by definition are, at least initially, out of the control of the company).

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A great definition that I heard most recently from Tim:

Suburbia: Where they cut down the trees and name the streets after them.

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On our way out to Cleveland, the group of us (Trish, Tim, Edmund, and me) started playing "Titles" in which you name the titles of works/shows/movies that are somehow connected by actors and the like. Along the way, we somehow ended up with a Terminator movie, raising the spectre of connecting to one of his stinkers. The conversation went like this:

Tricia: There's still plenty of Arnold Schwarzenegger to go around.

Edmund: Actually, with the amount of steroids he's taken, there probably isn't all that much of him to go around.

Tim: God! His nuts must be the size of lima beans!

(pause)

Did I mention how much I hate lima beans?

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And with that, I'll leave you vegans to your thoughts.