Spot the space station

During the next couple of weeks, North Americans and Europeans will have many opportunities to see the ISS flying over their homes, due chiefly to a seasonal circumstance.

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Where is the Afghan female runner?

The Afghan middle-distance runner was on the verge of realizing her Olympic dream. But now Andyar — slated to be the only female Afghan athlete at the Beijing Games — has gone missing from her training site just weeks before the opening ceremonies.

UPDATE: She is seeking asylum. /cheer

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FISA: Another epic failure in America's history

Today is going to go down as a dark day in our nation's history, as the Senate completes its total capitulation to the Bush administration and its corporate masters, through passing legislation that dramatically expands the government's surveillance powers and immunizes the companies responsible for illegally spying on us.

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OMG

OK, so it likely was painstakingly trained on how to draw each line and probably isn't aware of the end result. But still, it's intelligent enough to be able to memorize the steps and dextrous enough to control the brush and form the shapes. To kill or torture these creatures is unconscionable.

The Urge to End It: The Science of Suicide

In September 2000, Kevin Hines, a 19-year-old college student suffering from bipolar disorder, leapt from the Golden Gate. Along with Ken Baldwin, he is one of only 29 known survivors of the fall. Today Hines controls his bipolar disorder with medication and a strictly controlled regimen of diet and exercise and sleep, even while maintaining a frenetic schedule. Having recently married, he is frequently on the road lecturing for a suicide-prevention network while simultaneously working toward a psychology degree. One of his most intense ambitions, though, is to finally see a suicide barrier erected on the Golden Gate.

“I’ll tell you what I can’t get out of my head,” he told me in his San Francisco living room. “It’s watching my hands come off that railing and thinking to myself, My God, what have I just done? Because I know that almost everyone else who’s gone off that bridge, they had that exact same thought at that moment. All of a sudden, they didn’t want to die, but it was too late. Somehow I made it; they didn’t; and now I feel it’s my responsibility to speak for them.”

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Mysteries of time, and the multiverse

In his studies of entropy and the irreversibility of time, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll is exploring the idea that our universe is part of a larger structure.

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"The bombs bursting in air..." and in your hands

Can someone explain fireworks to me? I'm not feeling 'em. I'm not talking about the professional productions They put on at the theme parks. Those I can dig. What I don't get are the ones you buy from a tent vendor on the side of the road. Despite it not yet being the Fourth, people are shooting them off like crazy outside, and this is likely to keep up for the next couple of days. I feel like I'm huddled in a house in the middle of a firefight in Sadr City.

Every year 'round this time, you read all the stories about people losing a finger or burning themselves, or a tent spectacularly going up in flames. Let me just step over to the right side of the line a bit and say I'm not necessarily for government regulation of the activity -- I believe natural selection will do its work here. But if you're going to shoot off fireworks in the street between our houses, be sure you clean up all the litter and shells that land in my yard -- like you didn't do one year. Or if you happen to set yourself on fire, please stop, drop and roll in your own driveway.

Current mood: Angry

A little too convenient

Since I'm subscribed to a bunch of friends' blogs via Google Reader, I often forget to actually go to their sites and read the comments or see the pictures posted there. I just now noticed Uptown5 has this picture on his main page! LOL!

Current mood: Alert
Current music: Hell's Kitchen | The Orb

Stay strong

Good luck to one of my bestest friends in the whole world, who is having hip surgery tomorrow. Love you and see you soon. XOXOX.

Anxious in America

It’s the state of America now that is the most gripping source of anxiety for Americans, not Al Qaeda or Iraq.

I've given up on being a "real person"

"Live outside the box," eloquently put.

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Delaying news in the era of the Internet

Good NYT story on Wikipedia and Tim Russert

I'm in heaven

The 10 horniest Quagmire moments

Current mood: Sleepy

Are we watching a Tribune train wreck in progress?

From Steve Outing. You have to read the original memo and the first parody. Priceless.

Current mood: Sleepy

Simple pleasures, one in a series

The art of living frugally

Current mood: Inspired

What one pilot would really like to say from the cockpit

"Before we take off, I would like to apologize on behalf of this and every airline for the hassle you just endured at the security checkpoint. As is patently obvious to any reasonable person, the humiliating shoe removals, liquids ban, and pointy-object confiscations do little to make us safer...."

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You say recession, I say opportunity to live healthy

There is an optimistic refrain spiraling around: Maybe this financial comeuppance will teach Americans a valuable lesson about living healthier, smarter and within our means.

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My minor addiction to computer gadgets notwithstanding, I've always wondered about Americans' compulsion to have the latest, most expensive toys -- that subsequently end up in a landfill a year later, when we bore of them and newer versions come out. We seem to be incapable of resisting the marketing and advertising with which we are surrounded.

The big downside of our economic prosperity of the late early '90s was that it allowed us to overindulge, consume and spend. We Americans are a victim of our own success. Because of our relative wealth, we are now overweight, overmedicated, unable to relax and lacking attention spans. As has been said before, perhaps $5-a-gallon gas isn't such a bad thing.

Current mood: Optimistic

Why women quit technology careers

More than half of the women in science, engineering and IT leave the field at mid­career. Here are some reasons, from the Center for Work-Life Policy in New York.

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As a woman in her 30s who has just left a tech career, I can say from my perspective, half of this is true.

The "antigens" listed on the first page -- primarily, machismo and a perception by the IT good ol' boys club that women are genetically inferior -- are factors that I, luckily, have not experienced. With the exception of one position, I have been treated with respect at all of my jobs, and I have always felt like I was an equal member of the team. (I will add the asterisk that a good portion of my career has been spent in journalism, a field in which there is [1] a fair ratio of men to women -- sometimes to a politically-correct fault, and [2] a workforce that reflexively strives for objectivity.)

That's not to say that I have not see machismo firsthand. It mostly came from older men who wielded some power in the workplace, encouraging their behavior, and this is the exception to which I referred. They're the ones who have a wife and girlfriend on the side. It's not a stretch to think their sons stand a good chance of carrying on that mentality.

I tend to connect better with men than women, so it's easy for me to laugh along with the off-color or sexual jokes I hear. I know the folks who have told those jokes are respectable, hardworking men who don't seriously mean what they are saying and only tell them for a laugh. I know there's no reason to take those jokes seriously. And when you're a woman in a workplace dominated by men, it's a given you're going to hear locker-room talk that men tell other men. If you're a woman who can't laugh at some locker-room jokes, a male-dominated career might not be the place for you to work (within any reasonable person's definition of jokes, of course). I think it would be the same the other way around: If a man worked in a female-dominated workplace, he'd likely hear more conversations about Aunt Flo and glass-vs.-plastic baby bottles than he's used to. It's just the environment.

As for the factors listed on the second page of the article, these are the antigens I have experienced in my career: isolation, lack of mentorship and rewarding riskier behavior patterns.

The final antigen concluded by the study -- that the tech industry is unfriendly to families -- may or may not be true. It does say that many women in other fields will leave to start a family and try to get back into their industry later. In my experience, I have found that not to be case. Once they left the workforce to have children, the women I worked with tended not to come back; and if they did, it was either to come back part-time or perhaps take an occasional contract job only to keep up a licensure or certification. I understand the decision, and if I had chosen to start a family, it, of course, would be my top priority. However, I do think that women who choose to have children and also want to work have an insurmountable hurdle in maintaining both, particulary in tech, where 50- to 70-hour workweeks are expected. It's not an industry that forgives those who expect to have a life outside of work, which is a shame. That was a factor in my leaving my last job, and I don't even have kids. Neither did the two other coworkers who did what I did, and they both were also my age, which speaks to the industry being one for singles and DINKs -- two demographics in which women who choose to be tend to be looked down upon in our society.

One of the Diggers who commented on the article brought up the fact that part of the reason for the dearth of women in tech jobs is that women and men just have different interests and strengths. Women tend to be more right-brained, and men tend to be more left-brained (blanket statements, of course), and by definition, left-brained folks will find it easier to succeed in science and technology careers. Although I think attitudes and interests are changing to be more homogenous, I do think it's a valid consideration.

As the article said, if a man fails at a task, he likely will be forgiven by his peers; if a woman fails, the rest of her tenure in that job might be defined that mistake. The willingness to take risk goes back to our culture. In our society, girls are expected to behave demurely, quietly and obediently, whereas gregariousness, curiosity, vocality are expected of boys. I am not attributing blame, only stating how things have evolved. Then, as adults, it becomes easier for men to take chances; for women, taking chances can lead to insecurity and self-doubt, mostly because it's territory into which women aren't as accustomed. That's not to say that these hurdles cannot be overcome, but men have an inherent head-start in risk-taking.

Here's a first-person account of risk-taking behavior among men and women, as told by my super-genius sister, who recently changed jobs:

I have come across an interesting phenomenon in the course of [a] job change. Most literature on women's -vs- men's pay, human resources, etc. claims that women earn, on average, $0.77 for every dollar a man earns. The scientific literature on the subject attributes this to mostly two reasons: first, women predominate in professions with lower pay scales (think teachers, librarians, and cafeteria lunch ladies), and second, women don't negotiate their pay increases as aggressively as men. ...

... My [old] pay scale overlaps with the pay scale of my new job. The new job tops out higher than my old job, but my [old] rate of pay is higher than the bottom of the new pay scale. ... The normal M.O. [in public-sector work] is for everyone to start at the bottom and work their way up in stages; starting above minimum isn't unheard of, but it is unusual, and it requires additional layers of approval to happen. When I interviewed for the new job, I made it clear I would not consider the job unless I started out above the minimum of the pay range; actually, I put down my current salary as my minimum requirement. My [old] salary falls somewhere between the bottom and the middle of the salary range of the new job, so I didn't feel that my request was unreasonable, especially with [my] experience. ...

Fast forward to getting the job offer, and the hiring supervisor asked me point blank what I'd like to get paid. I named a figure that is 5% above what I [was] making, and she said okay she'd see about it. I arrived at the 5% above figure by talking to [by BF's] mom. ...

Here is where the interesting part comes in, at least to me. Every single male I spoke with afterward told me I should have asked for 10%, if not higher. And most, if not all, of the females I talked to afterward thought 5% was reasonable with all the other variables factored in (the pay tops out higher, I get a review and a raise in 6 months, etc). So it seems we ladies do indeed aim low when it comes to negotiating pay.

Although the headline of this blog post is not representative of the story, a Wired blogger sums it best.

Current mood: Hopeful

How to live with just 100 things

Excess consumption is practically an American religion. But as anyone with a filled-to-the-gills closet knows, the things we accumulate can become oppressive, which is why people are so intrigued by the 100 Thing Challenge, a grass-roots movement in which otherwise seemingly normal folks are pledging to whittle down their possessions to 100 things.

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Behind the scenes of 'The Colbert Report'

Stephen Colbert may inject his character into politics and media, just as he might wind up in the Smithsonian or Canadian junior league hockey. He's created a kind of satire in action, teetering between his self-made universe and an often equally absurd real world. It's a constant balancing act that last year nearly had him on the road to the White House.

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The wife John McCain left behind

There is another Mrs. McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children. She is McCain’s first wife, Carol.

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Unemployed

I left behind a well-paying, professional job with great perks and benefits last week.

I quit by choice, abruptly, an animalistic act of self-preservation sparked by a continual state of fright, fight or flight I could not turn off.

I was overwhelmed by the amount of stress and work that hung over me, and there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I can't really say whether that's how it always had been there. All I know is that that amount of stress was not something my body could sustain. My health was suffering. We all know that regular exercise relieves stress and depression. But I couldn't find the time or energy to exercise regularly because I was working and traveling so much, thus perpetuating the problem.

I've run through What Went Wrong over and over again in my head. Basically, the job just wasn't what I expected, and in the end, I decided I couldn't adapt to what it really was before I ended up in the hospital. I was surprised and discouraged at how much is done on the fly there, like a huge project that is plopped in your inbox at 4:59 p.m. on a Friday. And that's How Things Are. I then concluded that no one ever really gets ahead of the workload there, one only gets used to it. And I didn't think I could before something terrible happened to me.

I did like some parts of the job; namely, the networking, installing, software testing and tinkering. But most of the rest of it just didn't fit well with me, and the amount of that was more than I could take. Part of my job was giving presentations, something I am not good at. There were times when I felt like I could, over time, get used to doing them and perhaps even become proficient at them. But a horrific experience in which nothing went right, alone, in front of a customer, completely rattled my confidence, and I had little time after that to regroup before I was thrust into a similar but more stressful situation.

Other things happened during my travels that were not the fault of the company for which I worked, such as lost luggage and missed/canceled flights, that further added to my stress. The travel woes happened to me with such frequency that I'd gained a rep in the office as the one with the bad travel karma, and co-workers joked they were afraid to travel with me for fear of being stranded somewhere overnight. I also got into a very minor fender-bender leaving work one day. Those outside, out-of-anyone's-control stressors were a small contributor to my ill-fated ending, to be sure, but they happened often enough that I truly began to wonder, "Is someone trying to tell me something? Is this a message?"

In the end, I regret leaving the way I did. But I don't regret leaving. I'd made up my mind I was going to, but I didn't know when.

I'm just trying not to think of myself as a failure. I've heard many kind words from supportive friends who shared similar stories of how they left a decent job after a short time, and I am so thankful for their empathy. I'm also extremely grateful for my loving boyfriend, who put up with me and my mood swings these past couple of months and supported me in my decision.

As for what's next: I'll find something, whether it be back in publishing or massage therapy. The door is open.

Current mood: Peaceful

Typo personalities

They fight a losing battle, an unyielding tide of misplaced apostrophes and poor spelling. But still, they fight. For the last three months, they have circled the nation in search of awkward grammar. They have shone a light on typos in public places, sleeping on the couches of college friends. They are like a pair of Kerouacs with Sharpies.

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Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address

When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

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Creepy factoid learned day

Pepsi and Coke aren't available at vegan restaurants.

In rubble, Chinese couple clung to each other, and to life

At the moment of greatest despair, Wang Zhijun tried to kill himself by twisting his neck against the debris. Breathing had become harder as day turned to night. The chunks of brick and concrete that had buried him and his wife were pressing tighter by the hour, crushing them. Their bodies had gone numb...

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NMT 35.5?

In the spirit of early 1990s, college nostalgia brought on by fellow music lover Uptown5 in his latest New Music Tuesday, I present a couple of songs by The The (Matt Johnson). This first song, unfortunately, probably is best known to you and all the Kids These Days as the music behind an M&Ms marketing campaign. I was bitter at Johnson for a while for selling it out to The Man after seeing the commercial for the first, oh, 20 times, but then again, if The Man were dangling a million-dollar check in my face to use a song I wrote 25 years ago, I'd probably say, "where do I sign?" too. Anyway the song just isn't the same without the lyrics, which aren't in the commercial. Ever since I heard The The back in college, Johnson has been, hands-down, my favorite songwriter. Dark, truthful, relevant, brilliant. So I present to you, the original, nostalgic "This is the Day":



Well, you didn't wake up this morning
'Cause you didn't go to bed
You were watching the whites of your eyes turn red
The calendar on your wall
Is ticking the days off
You've been reading some old letters
You smile and think how much you've changed
All the money in the world
Couldn't buy back those days

You pull back the curtains
And the sun burns into your eyes
You watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky
This is the day
Your life will surely change
This is the day
When things fall into place

You could've done anything
If you'd wanted
And all your friends and family think that you're lucky
But the side of you they'll never see
Is when you're left alone with the memories
That hold your life together like
Glue

You pull back the curtains
And the sun burns into your eyes
You watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky
This is the day
Your life will surely change
This is the day
When things fall into place

This is the day
Your life will surely change
(repeat)

---

This second song is perhaps the most depressing song I've ever heard. I can't even listen to it without tearing up, and I've heard it hundreds of times. It's a duet called "Kingdom of Rain," about two lovers who have grown apart. She did not appear in the video, but Sinead O'Connor sang the female lead. God, now I'm depressed again. :/

I'm still here -- barely

I have struggled these past couple of months with a profound case of nervousness, insecurity and self-doubt, primarily brought about by my New Job, which is why I've been absent from your life for so long. I owe you an explanation, if you'll lend me an ear.

The New Job is nothing like I have done before. That's not to say I'm not familiar with the tasks associated with it: I now work for a newspaper software company, of which I am experienced in both sides. I worked in a newsroom of a Large Daily Paper for 15 years, and before that and during that time, I dabbled in scripting and programming, worked for an online news site and, on my own, learned some rudimentary HTML. On face value, I'm the perfect fit for the New Job.

What I was not prepared for were the intangible skills required: a flair for conversation, a flair for persuasion, the ability to think on your feet, the ability to get things done on the fly, talking loud and confidently, nonlinear thinking, presentation skills.

I think like a computer: Words, ideas, concepts are either true or false, black or white. Yes or no. There is no gray. Gray is inefficient. Perhaps that's why I was good at what I did at the Large Daily Paper. I turned raw data into beautiful, symmetrical columns; kerned headlines so that the space between each letter was perfectly balanced; lined up blocks of type down to the point. Not a hair out of place. To the bean-counters, I was called a designer. But honestly, I was good at it not because I had artistic skill but because I was precise, clean, timely, efficient. The copy desk of a newspaper is a white-collar assembly line, and I was a good fit at my station.

To say that the New Job has taken me out of that level of comfort would be the understatement of the century. I am now a business traveler, blindly feeling my way from airport to job site to job site to airport, hoping -- stressing -- that my next flight isn't delayed or canceled. But moreover, I'm meeting-and-greeting; gripping-and-grinning; pretending to lead a group of cynical, skeptical journalists through training sessions on software that's buggy on a good day; struggling to come up with polite words to explain why Adobe InDesign crashed for the nth time.

When I ask coworkers how something is done, there are 10 different answers and 20 different ways to do it, depending on who you ask and who the software customer is. As I said, my brain doesn't work that way. My brain thinks there's one answer to every question. It treats every situation as if it were a Trivial Pursuit card: Sports: Who was the only player in history to win four major NHL awards in one season? Bobby Orr. (Aside: If you're playing that game and you get a historical NHL question to which you don't know the answer, guess either Wayne Gretzky or Bobby Orr.) Anyway, as I said, I think linearly. I was successful in school because there was typically one answer to a question. You either got it right or you didn't. I might have taken the long way to get there, but eventually, there was only one right answer. As for essay tests, I can say with confidence that I had enough spelling and grammar and regurgitation skills to impress. I might have gotten the answer wrong, but I spewed enough well-written and well-crafted BS to earn a B.

So when I am faced with No Right Answer, or there are 10 different ways to do it depending, I am paralyzed. I cannot proceed. And I am not allowed time to analyze the myriad outcomes and deduce the best course of action. I am a deer in the headlights. And my confidence is shaken.

I hate asking for help to get from Point A to Point B. At the Large Daily Paper, I'd been there so long, I rarely had to ask for help. And I wouldn't anyway if I needed it. I'd just figure it out. At the New Job, I am forced to continually ask, "What does this do?", "Where should I save that?", "Where did that go?," "Why is that in the manual when it doesn't work the way it should?" (Answer: It does -- in the next wersion. Forehead, meet keyboard.) It is incredibly humbling and demoralizing.

I've always struggled with severe insecurity. The New Job has not helped that condition.

Here's what I'm not, never have been and always prayed to God I were: Talkative, eloquent, loud, confident, jovial, witty, thick-skinned, popular. And those are the skills I am reminded I don't possess every single day at the New Job.

I'm sure the insecurity and the "what I'm not" list are inextricably tied.

"They" say it's good to take yourself out of your comfort zone every now and then to develop new skills, to make yourself a better person. The They who said that either must have been in a cushy job they would never leave, or retired.

So now you understand when I say I wasn't prepared for the New Job. I don't possess the necessary intangible skills. My comfort zone hasn't just been taken away. It has been obliterated. For the second time in my life, I have been longing for professional help, either psychological or medicinal.

Current mood: Depressed

Why the cyclone in Myanmar was so deadly

It was Asia's Hurricane Katrina — though with a reported 100,000 killed, it was many times more deadly. Packing winds upward of 120 mph (193 kilometers an hour), Cyclone Nargis became one of Asia's deadliest storms by hitting land at one of the lowest points in Myanmar (also called Burma) and setting off a storm surge that reached 25 miles inland.

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Tetris theme played on glass bottles

Our obsession with Tetris is probably only matched by LEGO, Star Wars, and Futurama. However, this video of three synchronized bottle-blowers interpreting Korobeiniki — the famous Tetris theme song — shows that a) our fetishes are really not that bad, b) we are too lazy, c) we don't have as much free time as we would like to do silly things like these.

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Soldier sues Army, saying his atheism led to threats

Army Specialist Jeremy Hall said he did not advertise his atheism during his service, but his views became apparent during his second deployment to Iraq. An officer told him, and others, they would be punished for not being Christians like the founding fathers, nullifying religious freedom to believe or not believe.

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Geek fun

From RJ: Atari catalog, 1981

Female athletes resist Saudi restrictions

"We want to reach Olympic levels," said Shatha Bakhsh, 21, a law student. "We have a lot of potential, but not the chance to show it." Powerful religious clerics ban sports for girls in public schools, deeming it un-Islamic, and recently canceled two rare all-women's events, a soccer match and a marathon.

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Leaving beautiful Bithloville, Quebec

Somewhere in the armpit of Quebec

Snowmobiles parked out front of my Comfort Inn like motorcycles

Om nom nom nom...

Your dose of cute for the day.

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Q: Do condoms help stop HIV? McCain: "You've stumped me"

NYT blog: Mr. McCain: “You’ve stumped me...Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

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Goosebumps

Obama's speech on race (37-minute video, with interactive transcript via NYT)

I watched every minute of it. He's an incredible orator, and given his life history and family background, it's hard not to think as you watch him speak -- he apparently wrote much of the speech himself the night before -- that he means every word he says, that's he's not bullshitting you like you'd expect from a politician eyeing the White House.

I fear for this man's life.

LOL!

#6

Home free

Just wanted to let everyone know I got home safely this afternoon. My persistence to camp out all night at O'Hare and try to keep my place on the standby list to MCO eventually paid off, so I managed to get home before my confirmed flight Saturday night to Jacksonville.

Tears in my eyes, I was never was so happy to be in Florida humidity.

Hallelujah.

Edit: I just noticed that this post and the previous post were both posted on the same day (Friday). I never would have believed that until I saw it. It feels as though 3 days have passed since I posted the previous one from a sports lounge at the old, musty Hilton attached to ORD.

Nightmare

Waited 2 hours on standby at ORD for United's last flight out to MCO for the night

Earlier, nearly lost it at an attendant, who, to talk me off the ledge, put me at the top of the standby list

But I didn't get called

Defeated, went to United "customer service" desk, where I spent the next 2 hours

Saw two pissed-off men at the front of the line almost come to blows -- they literally were nose-to-nose, F-word flying, until someone else came between them

Finally got to speak to an attendant

I apparently had become overtly agigated (became "That Guy" in line, the stereotypical short-fused person in a long line who causes an uncomfortable scene) because a second, snootier attendant asked what was going on and intervened

Yelled at him, periodically cutting him off mid-sentence when he tried to use his "blame the passenger" attitude on me

Almost came to tears when I was told there are NO flights on ANY airline to ANY airport in Florida until Saturday night, or I could wait until Sunday. Even asked about first and business classes and was willing to pay; was told there was nothing to offer even for purchase

Booked me on flight to JAX for Saturday night

Supposed to be home Thursday night

Will spend the night on a bench at ORD, holding out slim hope I can fly standby first thing Friday

This will definitely hold some weight when I finally decide whether I actually can do this new job.

Vancouver, Washington

A Crude Case for War?

"We may not know the real motivations behind the Iraq war for years, but it remains difficult to distill oil from all the possibilities. That's because our society and economy have been nursed on cheap oil, and the idea that oil security is a right as well as a necessity has become part of our foreign policy DNA, handed down from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter to George H.W. Bush. And the war and its untidy aftermath have, in fact, swelled the coffers of the world's biggest oil companies.

But it hasn't happened in the way anyone might have imagined."

Inside Beijing's shocking death camp for cats

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

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Brrr. Beautiful morning.

Timeline of Bush admin's politicization of terror, 2002-2008

Keith Olbermann presents an impressively detailed timeline called "The Nexus of Politics and Terror," chronicling the Bush admin's exploitation of terror threats for political gain. "What we were told about terror, and not told, for security reasons, has overlapped considerably with what we were told about terror, and not told, for political reasons."

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'After reading this I don't think that I've ever felt so ashamed of being male'

The men who sleep with prostitutes

We learn more about this administration from foreign media than our own (another in a series)

The Dallas Morning News published an adapted version of a longer article by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi commenting on Sibel Edmonds' case and the failure of the U.S. mainstream media to cover the news that FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, "the most gagged person in US history" according to the ACLU, is now risking prison to share her story.

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World Nature Photography Awards

Gorgeous.

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Countdown Special Comment on FISA

President Bush is a liar.

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Bush admin shuts down Web site tracking U.S. economic data

Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its “Best of the Web” awards for compiling data across govt agencies and making it publicly accessible. But as of March 1, the Bush admin has announced that it is shutting down this site due to "budgetary constraints."

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Putting the president above the law

Despite the head of the CIA conceding waterboarding is probably illegal, Cheney made it clear Bush would reauthorize waterboarding whenever he wanted.

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Only in Japan

Dr. Slump Handy Soft Poop for Good Luck. Poop is considered quite lucky in Japan, because the word for it, unchi, sound similar to the word for good luck, unki. Here's a pair of really cute pink colored "poop" toys from that classic bellwether of good taste, the Dr. Slump anime.

Current mood: Productive

"We have brought to Iraq the worst of America"

In a confidential memo, a long-time Republican, Manuel Miranda, who has served in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for the past year, says the State Department's efforts in Iraq are so poorly managed they "would be considered willfully negligent if not criminal" if done in the private sector.

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Rockford, Ill.

Small-town Illinois

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the snow is coming down diagonally.

Add Banff to the list of places to visit before I die

Peyto Lake (pea-toe) is a glacier-fed lake located in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. During the summer, significant amounts of glacial rock flour flow into the lake, and these suspended rock particles give the lake a bright, turquoise color.

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Expendability

Guess who's not coming back.

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Ridiculous snowstorm at O'Hare

Conveyor-belt sushi

Tampa

The weather outside is frightful

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It's cold and dreary outside, but I'm loving it. I saw snow -- well, more like dingy slush -- for the first time in years last night. I stomped my feet in it like a 4-year-old.

I can't remember the last time I've been in single-digit temperatures.

Growing up Asian-American

This is by a Chinese-American from California, but it pretty much sums up much of my social relationships in elementary school and perhaps gives you insight into how I can grow up in an (half) Asian household and yet not be able to speak Japanese.

Current mood: Pensive

Laugh

Wild effect in Tokyo Bay to market 'Water Horse' movie

In Tokyo, they used water fountains and lasers to project the huge monster from the new movie "The Water Horse."

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F*cking creepily narrated video of hornets attacking beehive

Best Print Ads of 2007

Collection of top print ads of 2007 from around the world

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Top 5 things I saw in America which, freaked me out

Top 5 things I saw in America which, as a Canadian, freaked me right out

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Top military blogger dies in Iraq; his final post

Andrew Olmsted, who also posted here as G'Kar, was killed yesterday in Iraq. Andy gave me a post to publish in the event of his death; the last revisions to it were made in July.

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The Great Underperforming Movies of 2007

With critics and sofa kings churning out their lists for best and worst films of 2007 like Jonah Hill drawing dicks, let’s take a look at the movies that failed to reach general expectations, whether at the box office, creatively, or both.

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On the air

I've entered the 21st century by creating a YouTube channel. My new camera shoots .AVIs with sound, so I figured I should take advantage. The channel is set to private (at least I hope). So if you didn't receive an invite and would like one, e-mail me and I'll invite you.

Current mood: Productive

Amazing laser-etched laptops

People are still laser-etching all kinds of things into their laptop lids, from the Mona Lisa to Barry Manilow to My Pretty Pony. Beautiful.

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Catching up

It's been awhile since I last posted something other than links to stories I Digg. But I do have an excuse this time: I'll be starting a new job the middle of next month. It's an opportunity that's been sort of bubbling slowly in the pot for a while now, but it finally came together about a week ago. Merry Christmas to me!

I'll save the specifics for more private chat. But basically, I'm putting my massage-business aspirations on hold for a bit to step back into my old line of work. It's somewhat of an editorial support role that will have me traveling a lot, and sometimes on short notice. I'll be sure to have my camera with me for every trip. :D

My last day at rehab office is Jan. 9, and my last day at the Old Office is Jan. 5 -- a place whose building, aside from vacations, I've walked into every week since my senior year in college in late 1992-early 1993. It's the only "real" job I've ever had. And I've been very fortunate that I wound up doing for a living what I studied in college. I just don't know whether it's sunk in yet that the cord has actually been cut.

But that's not to say there's any regret -- I'm truly excited about the new opportunity and eager to get started at the new place. It's just hard to fathom that I won't be carrying the Old Office's cardkey around on my person any more, a cardkey I've somehow never lost and still has a picture of me from 1993 on it.

Current mood: Nostalgic
Current music: Koko / Goldfrapp

Sad milestone: AOL to discontinue Netscape browser development

Please observe a moment of silence for the Netscape browser. Netscape Navigator, the browser that launched the commercial Internet in October 1994, will die on February 1, 2008. AOL, which acquired Netscape in November 1998 for $4.2 billion, will announce today they will discontinue development of the browser, currently on version 9.

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Tape fingers Bush as a war criminal

"...this case is more ominous for the administration because it presents a core example of what seems to be a cover-up, obstruction of justice and a direct connection between torture and the president, the vice-president and their closest aides."

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Cheney accused of blocking Californian bid to cut car fumes

The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, was behind a controversial decision to block California's attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the government Environmental Protection Agency.

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DHS f*cking up Wikipedia

"This host, n021.dhs.gov, is registered to the United States Department of Homeland Security, and may be shared by multiple users."...."Please stop adding nonsense to Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism."

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Futurama: How Zoidberg got his name from a game

Apple II geeks, listen up. Did you know that Futurama creator David X. Cohen named a character after an Apple II video game that he created? Or that he wants your help to get the game, called Zoid, up and running again?

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Cute

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/116/287694207_02ecbbe8d4.jpg?v=0

Current mood: Sleepy

16 secrets the restaurant industry doesn't want you to know

We scrambled behind the counters, dug under the drive-throughs, and plunged into the deep fryers to find out what's really going into our meals.

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Fox analyst: Americans shouldn't be above torture

Americans aren't above resorting to torture to gain intelligence from suspected terrorists -- and it would be a mistake if they were, according to Fox News military analyst Col. David Hunt.

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Signs of life

Hallelujah. I'm on the air.

For now.

I'm in Louisiana, where life, for a city-slicker like me, seems to move in slow motion. Aside from activity at the nearby university, people don't seem to do much here aside from eat lots of greasy, deep-fried food, talk to and about kinfolk, watch the Weather Channel and turn in at the late hour of 10 p.m.

But as it turns out, the in-laws have wireless Internet this year. OK, that's not entirely true. More accurately, a neighbor who must not have password-protected his wireless network must have it, because I'm online here. Intermittently, anyway. I can see several networks in my connection settings, some of which are password-protected. But every few minutes or so, one pops up in the list to which I can connect.

There is a God. But why does he like to tease?

Current mood: Grateful

Detailed list (with pictures) of Easter eggs in Pixar movies

Here is an awesome list of where the in-jokes and self references in Pixar's feature films and shorts are located.

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The 70 best ideas of 2007, according to The New York Times

For better or worse, these are 70 of the ideas that helped make 2007 what it was.

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Customers who bought "Fresh, Whole Rabbit" also bought...

What the HELL do they have planned for that rabbit?!!

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C.I.A. admits destroying tapes of interrogations

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A’s secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

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Olbermann: ‘Mr. Bush you are a bald-faced liar!’

COUNTDOWN’s Keith Olbermann delivers perhaps his most powerful ‘Special Comment’ to date, on Iranian intelligence and what Bush knew and when he knew it.

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Flux capacitor for sale

Seems like every year since 1985 a modified Delorean with Flux Capacitor shows up for sale. This time, it's just the 1.21 jigawatt-powered heart of the Back to the Future time machine. The perfect accessory for your 2008 Delorean. Get your $220 pre-order in now (or $275 after January 1st) for an April 30th, 2008 fluxing -- the apparent past.

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RIP, CompUSA: 1984-2008

Days after we first reported that CompUSA could be shutting down for good very, very soon, the WSJ is reporting that the beleaguered big box retailer has been sold to Gordon Brothers Group for liquidation, which will occur shortly after the holidays.

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Teen calls Bush’s secret phone; creates security scare

An Icelandic teen somehow figured out President Bush’s private phone number, and called it recently, leaving a message saying he was the president of Iceland and wanted him to call him back. Teen won't say how he did it.

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Consumers afraid of identity theft are using a credit freeze

As of November 1st, 2007 all consumers in the US can now freeze their credit reports, protecting them from identity theft. Credit bureau's spent $1.4 million last year lobbying against credit freeze laws. As more states adopted the practice, the bureaus finally gave in. With 10 million identity theft victims a year this could turn the tides.

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Huckabee suggested AIDS patients be isolated

According to this Yahoo news article "Tax Hike Mike" once suggested that AIDS patients be isolated. Here is a quote: "If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague." Does that sound like an idea a freedom loving person would propose?

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Gut-check

Reason No. 2,369 to get down on the holidays: Too much free food.

I have been exposed daily to free cake, cookies, sweets, chocolates, doughnuts, pie and mounds and mounds of starches and carbs. It's too much of a good thing.

I went to the first of three Christmas parties last night. It was an opulent affair, hosted by a manager at the orthopedic/rehab office at which I work. There was a chocolate-fondue fountain, catering, 3-foot sheet cake, open bar and live music. And wouldn't you know it -- I loaded my small plate several times full of pasta, eggplant parm, cheese and crackers and spinach dip and had a huge slice of cake.

Two more parties to go.

Sure, it's easy to say, "Well no one's making you eat all that." But with me, nothing's ever that simple. I work out like I do in part because I have no willpower whatsoever. I am a sad glutton. If you watched me eat, you'd swear I hadn't eaten in a week.

I'm feeling fatter than ever. It's so unfair how it can take months to get into shape but only a handful of days to erase all that hard work. It's going to take me two months to undo what I've eaten these past two weeks. And I still have to get through my birthday and Christmas.

That said, I love the holidays in general, and I love getting together with people I care about. It's just terribly, terribly rough seas for those who are trying to watch their weight. I'm really struggling.

Current mood: Depressed

Good news, everyone!

Futurama is back!

Current mood: Tired

New, updated wish list

I've posted a few things here.

I typically am put off by people who publicize what they want. But I don't want that to be how this comes across. At my age, material possessions matter less and less, and I don't want anyone to feel obligated to give me a gift. A simple e-mail updating me on your life or night out with you would warm my heart just as much or more. My intention with the list is only to help make shopping (eww) as quick and painless as possible -- if that's something you feel you want to do. I often find that when Christmas rolls around, friends and family just come straight out and ask, "What do you want?", "What would you like?" or "What do you need?" I just wanted to put pen to paper, figuratively speaking of course, and brainstorm some ideas (inspired because someone recently asked me point-blank, "Be thinking about what you want"). So as the local cable company would say, "We're trying to make things a little easier."

Current mood: Productive
Current music: Fortress Around Your Heart (video) / Sting

Sign of the times, another in a series

"These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child."

Current mood: Sad

Captivating reading

Airline disasters

Current mood: Sleepy

Bizarre animal news roundup

Thieving monkeys 'were even slapping women who try to chase them'

'I can quite confidently say it's probably not an orangutan'

Current mood: Full

Sugar high

Finally finished off the last of the leftover Halloween Kit Kats, Twixes and Reese's Cups. Yum. If I learned anything, it's that I really need to equip a trinket that will increase my resistance to milk chocolate.

Current mood: Satisfied

Hooch 2007

From Hooch 2007

The Head of the Chattahoochee is my rowing club's biggest event of the year. I just got back from Chattanooga last weekend. My boat typically does well, but this year was an off-year for us. I'll call it a "rebuilding year." The novice group -- rowing nomenclature for those who have less than a year's experience, in which they also can compete in a separate category so they don't have to race against people who have rowed for years -- made a terrific showing, however. There's hope for us yet. They're extremely fit and were working out upwards of six days a week leading up to the regatta. With the way they're going, I won't be surprised if they become the "A" boat and mine the "B."

Anyway, the weather up there was crisp and chilly -- just the way I like it. Which begs the question: Why the heck have I been in Florida for so long?

Current mood: Groggy
Current music: Reunion (video) / Erasure