Monthly Archives: June 2004

New concerns about childhood obesity. It causes health problems. No kidding, Sherlock.

“I’ve been in the field for 20 years. What I’m seeing now, I’ve never seen before,” said Caprio, adding that it is not uncommon for a teen to weigh 200 or 300 pounds.

Losing weight through diet and increased activity should help reverse or reduce the conditions and ward off complications, she said.

This is tacky.

“If these people were able to read and write with a simplified spelling system, they would be able to fill out a job application, stay employed, and stay out of prison,” said Sanford Silverman, 86. The retired accountant from Cleveland was handing out copies of his book, “Spelling for the 21st Century: The case for spelling reform.”

And if you got the job without being able to read, how would being illiterate keep you from staying employed? Also, why would illiteracy cause you to go to jail? “Back when I couldn’t spell I was forced to rob 7-11s”?

I don’t know what they have to say, it doesn’t matter anyway, whatever it is, I’m against it.

A guy recorded his trip from L.A. to Beaverton and compressed it into 6 minutes. Ah, the beauty of the 5. Not for the faint of bandwidth.

When, oh when will this stupidity stop?

Sure the idea is old and tired, but so is Kerry. Die hippies, die.

Back in my day the Berlin Wall coming down was current events, but we still only spent a week on everything after World War I too.

Coming tomorrow. The mooses of Sherman Ave. And as a teaser I have one, er, two, uh, one hyphenated word for you: Toulouse-LauMoose.

UPDATE: I’m trying to figure out a way I can qualify for part of this. I definitely need to improve my skills as an art critic. Maybe the moose could be considered theatre.

I didn’t know anyone in the US knew how to play cricket. Now I find out they are trying to form a professional league.

You too can download part of the second Star Trek pilot. Which would be the first one with Kirk and Spock.

via Trekweb

From Frank J.

* When helping the Iraqis with elections, make sure the ballots are clear so they don’t come under rule of Pat Buchanan.

* Remember to take your car keys off the key ring before handing the keys to government buildings over.

* Though security should mainly be handled by the Iraqis now, do leave a few Marines to help out… and maybe Aquaman.

Yeah, you go ahead and snooze.

Some of the more radical French thinkers describe sleep as a revolutionary activity that should be used as a weapon against the evils of capitalism.

…

Paradoxically, the French have more opportunities to sleep than almost any other nation. With a maximum 35-hour working week imposed by law, they have time to spare.

Alton Brown has a Wired article. They are shockingly behind the times here. More links are here.

I broke the brush coupler on my roomba, through my own fault. I didn’t clean it out enough. I contacted customer support to buy a new one, but they are sending me one for free. See, that’s all it takes to build customer loyalty.

I’m willing to bet money that their ancestors would give them a swift kick in the butt and tell them to get on with their lives.

DeGruy-Leary testified this month in Washington County Circuit Court that African Americans today are affected by past centuries of U.S. slavery because the original slaves were never treated for the trauma of losing their homes; seeing relatives whipped, raped and killed; and being subjugated by whites.

Also,

“He had a traditional, Southern, small-town, working-class upbringing where ‘whuppin’ was accepted,” Vogt said. “Whether that was abusive or not, that is in the eye of the beholder. He was raised differently than your typical kid in Beaverton.”

A “whuppin'” does not kill children. Regardless of whether they are in Mississipi or Beaverton. Otherwise there would be scores of cases of traditional, Southern, small-town, working-class kids being killed by their parents. This guy is whacked.

If this is the heart and soul of the Republican party, there’s a problem.

“It is a fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party: Is it a party about deficit reduction or a party about tax cuts?” said Stanley Collender, a budget expert at Financial Dynamics, a business communications firm in Washington.

And the correct answer, by the way, is “cut spending”.

UPDATE: Oh, look! Jonah agrees with me. He says it better, naturally.

Okay, let’s start with the ugly. Someone at North Idaho Title must have ticked someone off to get stuck with this monstrosity in front of their building.

And now the good. This one looks odd from a distance, but close up you can see what they are doing and it’s pretty cool. This one’s in front of the Spokesman-Review building, because you don’t want to irritate the press with an ugly moose outside their building and get bad reviews, obviously.

Stay tuned, there’s lots more to come. And by the way, I didn’t do this.