So many people are walking into light poles in London while texting that they are going to try padding the poles. You would have thought this would be a self-correcting problem.

Well, I would have. Whack yourself once and I pay a lot more attention to that sort of thing.

CEO of HTFC cussed so much during his deposition that the judge fined him $29,000.

Later, Bodzin said: “We’re going to adjourn this deposition if this happens again because you are offending every single person.”

Wider responded: “‘Don’t speak for anybody in here except yourself [expletive] face.’”

Bodzin said he was speaking for himself and the court reporter.

Wider said: “‘If she had a problem with me she would say something. She knows it’s [not] directed toward her. It’s directed to you because you’re a [expletive] and a piece of garbage and I’m the only person in your life that is [expletive] up your world and I enjoy it.’”

What a charming person.

In Zimbabwe, I’d be a billionaire. Of course, a cup of coffee costs a million bucks. There’s pluses and minuses.

As with most things done by Congress, Daylight Savings time has the opposite effect of the one intended.

“There is surprisingly little evidence that DST actually saves energy,” they state in the abstract to their draft paper. “Our main finding is that — contrary to the policy’s intent — DST increases residential electricity demand.”

Personally, I can’t stand the spring forward and would willingly forgo the fall back to not have to spend the time adjusting.

If you’re going to buy placebos, get the expensive ones. They work better.

The mind is an amazing thing.

It’s a shame Oz Fitness took over for 24 Hour Fitness in Coeur d’Alene or they might have upgraded their treadmills. Which they have gotten their money out of because the same treadmills have been in there at least 10 years and 5 name changes. But my point was treadmills that sync to the Nano = cool. Nautilus could get in on this with weight machines that upload reps and load.

crossfit

On cliches.

It’s more that the prevailing drivel assumes that every adult in the country is a completely illiterate jerk who would rather feel than think and who must furthermore be assumed, for a special season every four years, to imagine that everyone else “in America” or in “this country” is unemployed or starving or sleeping under a bridge. The next assumption made by the drivel is that only a new president (or perhaps a sitting president who is somehow eager to run against Washington and everything else in his home town) can possibly cure all these ills. The non sequitur is breathtaking.

The Nebula Award finalists.

Earth and the Moon from Mars.

Also, avalanches on Mars.

See, they’re not free-loading backpackers because they’re trying to make a point.

The Get Smart trailer. I lol’d. Anne Hathaway makes me nervous though, didn’t seem very 99-ish.

Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP.

“They pose a threat to humanity,” said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.

If only someone had thought about and dealt with the moral implications of using robots to kill, like I don’t know, every science fiction writer ever.

The virtual fence will remain virtual* for years, due to the surprising problems of costing too much, the contractors using ineligible equipment and the fact that it’s the government trying to do it.

*Virtual: Something which is a representation rather than the real thing. In advertising, the word “virtually” means “almost.”

Lileks has some old pictures of New York that are what the kids these days are calling “cool”.

Well, I have no idea what kids these days are saying, I don’t get the Disney Channel. Which would actually tell me what Disney writers think kids were saying last year, but that’s not important right now.

Mother Jones has a playlist of torture songs. It vacillates between angry and silly, but you might find something new you like.

Montana based its entrance into the Union in part on individual gun rights.

Latest science suggests that the earth will be swallowed by the sun in 7.6 billion years.

Sure it seems like a long time, but you’ll turn around in a couple billion years and wonder where the days have gone.

Mark Steyn on the decline of the Clinton star power.

Self-repairing rubber. Think of all the tire and toys that won’t require patching or throwing away anymore. The world would be a better place.

So, a couple weeks ago someone asked to look at my driver’s license and I realized it expired. 3 months ago. I thought I had better rectify the situation because though I haven’t gotten a ticket in years, no doubt now would be the time I did—Murphy’s Law and all that. Alas, you can only renew by mail once and I was forced to go to the DMV to get a new one. The old one was the classic laminated style that caused TSA officers (are they officers? workers?) to laugh anyway.

I walked in and there were people sitting everywhere, staring into space. A few kids were studying the driver’s manual. My heart sank. I grabbed a number. 86. Would you believe it? I sat down. Nothing happened for about a minute and I realized this would not be an in-and-out thing and I went out to get a book from my car. There was a guy at the counter and he seemed to be taking quite some time. This made me nervous. I read for a few minutes and they started calling numbers…78…79.. 80… Yes, they were blowing through these. Everyone was renewing. 81…he was taking the driver’s test. Speaking of kids these days, it seems that punk has come back, I saw two (sad) mohawks and a spikey blond Billy Idol look while I was there.

After about 10 minutes my number came up. I told the lady I needed to renew, handed her my license and sat back down and waited to get through the renew line. 10 more minutes of reading and my name was called. The lady in front of me in line seemed completely befuddled by the entire experience and needed all the directions twice. “Take this paper over there, fill out this part, sign at the bottom.” Blank stare. “Over there?” gesturing feebly with her purse. “Yes, take this paper over there…” Either she tests poorly or took too much prozac is all I can figure. The lady behind me was the chatty sort and was discussing lotion and things with the workers. I was somewhere in between. Took the eye test, gave my new address and info and got in line to pay.

They only take cash or checks! What?! Who doesn’t take debit cards in this day and age? Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department of Driver’s Licensing, that’s who.

Luckily I keep some emergency cash in my vehicle and went out to get it while I was waiting. Stood in that line a few minutes, paid my money, filled out my paper work, waited a few minutes, got my picture taken—and a fabulous picture it is too—I like how they ask if it’s okay. Uh, sure it’s for my license, I won’t ever look at it. With any luck no one will see it except the Del Taco people who ask for ID on a debit card. What is with that? Then I waited a few more minutes for my license to print out and was done.

The entire thing took 40 minutes, which isn’t too bad, all in all. As someone who hasn’t been there in 8 years and not since they moved into the new building it wasn’t a bad experience at all. The benches could be a bit more comfortable, but at least they were padded. The people working there were pleasant enough and competent and while there was some waiting around the lines were moving and that counts for a lot.

Video tape your life. Cool technology, freaky implications.

Turkey launches offensive into Iraq hunting Kurds.

My head is above water and I’m quite comfortable with my life, thank you. I sometimes worry that I’m too comfortable. The other shoe is going to drop sooner or later.

Dave Barry gets a colonoscopy.

Make sure you jump buddies aren’t mad at you before you jump.

Poor Obama.

Talk radio did this earlier with Barak supporters, but here it is in living color.

…apparently at some point Scotty has a “midget sidekick.”

I’m afraid the Star Trek movie is going to suck so much that black hole formation warnings may be needed.

The ice is back.

There’s one more fear we can stop panicking about. Don’t worry though. You still have the flu thing. And shark attacks should start in a couple months.

No, not really. But Steyn pulls together the news in an alarming way.

So I’ll post this insightful article instead.

If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it.

Scott Ott talks jibberish.

No one can believe this stuff?!

Be from Okinawa, Ovodda, or Loma Linda. The commonalities, none. The possible reasons, caloric restriction, inbreeding and religion.

Okay, so they have no idea.

Your DVD collection? You’re going to have to buy it again in HD, Blu-ray won the war. Now we just need the price of players to drop below $200.

Hitchens has a good article on the craven media of the West.

Go ahead, try to make it through this video.

When anyone rick-rolls you, this can be your payback.

Don’t tell me Sony is actually going to win a format war?!

The new Indiana Jones trailer is out. I am now cautiously optimistic about it.

They better not have just packed all the good parts into the trailer.

A very special valentine’s message.

Right Wing News has some valentines for you if you’re way too obsessed with politics.

Signs point to yes.

Two words: Hello Kitty MMORPG.

A study on love, twue love in America.

Yeah, that’s all encouraging.

Duke Nukem Forever is delayed.

Chaucer redone for Rowan.

Penn knows who the next president is (NSFW language).

Lileks has a quick paragraph on The Patriot Corporation Act. You know who else like patriotic corporations?

Not the greatest of pictures, because I don’t have a nice digital camera and there’s no way I’m going near it. Also, she blends in well with the suburban habitat. There’s a few more pics on flickr, none look much better though.

I’m sitting there minding my own business in my living room, I look up and there’s a freaking moose standing in the back of my yard. No one expects a moose to be in their backyard. She’s just standing there, minding her own business. The cops said to leave her alone and she’ll wander off. Well, now she’s laying there chewing her cud. It figures that I lost my cellphone Wednesday and didn’t bother getting it replaced yet because I seldom make or receive calls and was kind of hoping it would appear out of whatever berm it got plowed into. Now this comes up and I can’t call anyone. Further bulletins as events warrant.

4:15pm – The neighbor is now making loops through the alley. If the moose rampages and smashes something because of this, I’m going to be upset.

It strikes me that I ended up with a dog from a similar situation.

7:45pm – Having finished her cud, it sounds like (it’s dark now) she’s EATING MY PEAR TREES!

8:30pm – Having finished her light snack, she appears to have settled down for at least a nap if not the night.

11:00pm – She’s having a light midnight snack of something back there.

8:00am – The moose moved on sometime in the night, leaving behind several large piles of poop and ravaged branches on my pear tree. Good luck moose.

It used to be that if you knew what you wanted you could go to Best Buy and pick it up for a reasonable price. Today I went to get an HDMI cable, a USB cable and an ethernet cable. They wanted 25 bucks for an ETHERNET CABLE. I want a 2 dollar cable, for pete’s sake. I don’t need gold-plated braiding to get from my router to my computer. I was thinking it would be outrageous to have to pay $7.99 but I was willing to do it for the convenience of having it now. We’re talking about 6′ here. The signal loss from the cheaper cables will be undetectable. The HDMI ranged from $100 to $50.Outraged, I gave up and left.

I went online, Newegg in this case, and got all three cables plus shipping for less than they wanted for the blasted ethernet cable. I can wait three days to avoid being ripped off like that.

Real guitar Guitar Hero.

They’re frickin’, frickin’ laser beams. Seems plausible. With awesome pic.

OH, now they think of the potential for destroying humanity.

Wonder no longer.

Substitute the hotdog with a sausage perhaps and it would be full of win.

I’d just like to point out that I”m more awesome and stylish than 99% of the people.

That took this test.

What?

Your Score: All Your Base

You scored 45 Awesomeness and 51 Style!

You are the mothership of all memes. You have all the advantages of a really great meme, you have a catchy song, and you appeal to a large number of people who can distribue you easily. Unfortunately, however, you tend to be the mainstay of people who arent funny trying to be funny, and as many times as you’ve been played, you should probably be taken out into a lonely field, and shot. Repeatedly. By nukes.

Not surprisingly, you can be found at: http://www.allyourbasearebelongtous.com/

When scientists say, “You know, our cancer research would be easier if we had a transparent fish so we could see inside” and then go and create it, it’s a great time to be alive.

This is a bit disturbing:

Zebrafish were chosen for their strong genetic similarities to human beings

There’s a space shuttle launch at 11:45pst today. You can watch it here.

Lileks goes on a bit of a tear. As it to rip, not as in to cry. I hate the read/read thing too. I always end up reading it wrong the first time, jarring me to a halt.

So, one of my headlights is out. It took a hit from a rock it looks like. Passenger side. Naturally that side is $40 more expensive than the driver’s side assembly. Why?

UPDATE: I don’t know that I need to replace the entire assembly, I’m just preparing for the worst. Hopefully it just needs a bulb.

Further UPDATE: So, a bulb did indeed get the light shining again. Well worth the $8 and 15 minutes of my time. It’s a good thing I have small hands though. What to do about the gouge and hole in the lens, well, that needs further thought.

It would only cost $.75 billion to build a basic mecha?!

It’s the Taser-Mossburg-Lego shotgun. Still somewhat lethal then?

5 Iranian internet cables have been cut now. Very, very odd. But I just don’t see who benefits from it.

A look at the middle class in America.

I like the part where he says that if we lived like people in the 70s, we’d be able to make ends meet. The horror.

But then how can we exercise our moral outrage if the most convenient argument to the most convenient targets are unavailable?

I like this pledge. I also have no doubt that anyone actually elected would ignore it, regardless of whether they signed it or their party.

I don’t really see this as political correctness run amok. Political correctness tries to modify thoughts by banning behavior, this is just trying to modify inappropriate behavior in public.

Yesterday’s weather: sunny, above freezing, things melting and most importantly, no snow. School closed, snow day.

Today’s weather: Windy, cloudy, and most importantly, snowing. School’s open.

Huh?

What Bill Clinton actually said that if we slowed down our economy to stop global warming it wouldn’t do any good because China, India and Africa aren’t about to do the same thing. Which is a valid point. The interesting part is that even he admits that that is the result of trying to stop global warming.

Watch out for that link, it bogged my Firefox down.

How to drive.

This is why some people think the global warming hysteria is a bad idea.

Disposable batteries, no matter how efficient, should be considered a controlled substance and, as such, should be sold under the same restrictions as, say, prescription drugs or guns.

This will cause the price of every electronic consumer good to shoot through the roof. It makes something simple, like smoke detectors and creates headaches, expense and bureaucracy to use it.

No one is against cleaner air, more green space, or more efficient cars—well, very few are—but when you talk like this, people will react violently in the opposite direction. People are against higher costs and more hassles.

I spelled bureaucracy right the first time. Yes!

20 things you didn’t know about science fiction.

I knew a couple of them. The last one came as a surprise.

John McCain?

That’s a bit of a quandary for me come November.

The best of Digg pics.

Not watching the local news I had no idea it wasn’t just snowing every other day, we were having A WEATHER EVENT. Everyone stay home, there’s snow on the ground! Not even dangerous stuff like a whiteout or ice, just wet snow. Gosh, how will we get through it.

Yeah, there’s a lot of snow, but for pete’s sake, it’s Idaho. We’re a couple hours from Canada, which is practically the Arctic Circle.

Also, while I’m on local events, the manager at the new FedExKinkos in Post Falls is a pleasure to deal with. If you want to enjoy the whole shipping experience go there. Of course, you’ll pay for it, it is FedEx after all.

Interesting essay on the new atheism.

In Britian, it’s no longer Islamic terrorism, it’s anti-Islamic activity.

But I don’t recall even Neville Chamberlain explaining, as if to a five-year old, that there is nothing German about the wish to terrorize and invade, and that this is entirely at odds with the core German values of sitting around eating huge sausages in beer gardens while wearing lederhosen.

Not my life, other, more interesting lifes. A couple of life lessons. Also, surprising news about the airport in Singapore.

The democrats have knocked my cool prebate from $800 to $300. Jerks.

I grant you I was just going to stick it in savings for when I had to give it back in taxes next year, but still. Jerks.

UPDATE: Oh, $600. Well, that’s not quite so bad.

Shout! Factory has purchased the rights to release MST3K digitally and on DVD and says they will actually do so.

The best ad for a scientifical gadget ever.

It’s hard to imagine that this was just 18 years ago. Cool technology though.

Fred Thomson is out. He was the only one I could have really gotten behind. It’s going to be a very meh election.

Cheese-filled, bacon-wrapped, beer-battered, deep-fried hot dogs.

Quality line:

I am the world’s worst Jew.

Addictive, bad for your insulin levels, and a leading cause of cartels.

Mmmm, sugar.

It’s taken 4 year for people to realize that Hydrox are no longer being produced. Which says something about their shelf-life.

Also, Nabisco is short for National Biscuit Company. There was something worth learning for today.

Properly tagged as snark. I liked it.

Lileks nails the whole economy, tax rebate thingy.

Not that I mind if I get to keep $800 of my money rather than letting the government spend it on, well, whatever they’re spending it on these days. Defense mostly, apparently.

There’s a boom and then there’s a bust. Having lived through a few, it’s annoying to hear the same fargin’ end-of-the-world hairshirt orations, especially from those who have spent their entire lives walking around with a bucket of black paint and a brush looking for good news to deface.

Spokane is mentioned.

Instead of letting lenders and borrowers on a mortgage that probably shouldn’t have ever been made in the first place pay for their mistakes, presidential candidates want to make the problem worse. To be fair, Bush doesn’t have a better plan.

But then again, why should the government have a plan. No one forced the lenders to lend and no one forced borrowers to borrow.

Stop writing what you think unless I say you can!

Contact lenses with cool stuff in them.

Engineers at the UW have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

The electron is to the right.

California should soon have the power to control thermostats in energy emergencies.

New head of SciFi.

“This brand has so much more untapped potential,” Howe said. “My role is to really figure out how we take Sci Fi as a cable network and build it into more of an affinity lifestyle brand.

The potential to show science fiction, mayhap? Perhaps create affinity with nerds who want to watch science fiction? I’m just throwing these ideas out there.

“As things stand, we’re primarily a cable TV brand,” he added. “In five years’ time, I’d love to be able to say that Sci Fi is no longer just a cable network but a category killer in videogames, mobile and the youth market.”

Apparently not.

A top internet agent for Al Qaeda found in London.

Undocumented firearms.

Lileks accurately captures how all computer work goes, at least until you get the process smoothed out and then it only lasts until something disrupts the process.

Happy Trogday!

Original, if you want to remember.

Well, if the original was good enough to eat, I don’t see why its genetic twin wouldn’t be.

Hitchens asks the question.

What would it take to break this cheap little spell and make us wake up and inquire what on earth we are doing when we make the Clinton family drama—yet again—a central part of our own politics?

You should probably go watch these videos.

We all know that Mike has RiffTraks.

Joel has Cinematic Titanic! Truly it is a great time to be alive.

Though I don’t agree with her stance in general, she has a point about Obama’s whole platform.

Once again, the problem is Congress.

“If you jerk taxpayers around like that enough, it just shows how irrational the system is, and it makes them feel like the system doesn’t care about them. That is a terrible thing for tax compliance,” Olson said in an interview.

Not that I have cable, but the SciFi channel doesn’t really deserve the name. The comments are mostly just as good as the letter, which is a refreshing change of pace.

Diamond Age on SciFi. It is the Stephenson book I liked the best and they’re going to ruin it. Cause it’s about a girl that learns computer programing. Yeah, that’s riveting to watch.

Bill Gates last day at work.

Did you know that the guy that invented the super-soaker was a nuclear engineer? Also he has some new energy efficient technology or something.

Hillary and McCain got nothing on this guy.

New OLED televisions.

Long boring article.

Alternating current could kill an elephant. And did so this day in 1903, thanks to Thomas Edison.

100 countdown.

It displays an impressive array of movies.

Bill Whittle has another fascinating essay up.

Not since 1960 have we not had a president or vice-president in the running for an election.

$100 per barrel of oil? Just because this guy wanted to brag about it.

Not content with suing people for sharing music, the RIAA is suing a guy for ripping CDs into the wrong folder.

I feel the love.

Dave Barry’s year in review.

As we stagger to the end of 2007, we have to face the fact that 2008, being a leap year, will have a whole extra day of alarming events. So as bad as this year was, we should not be in such a hurry to move on. Instead, we should pause for a moment to raise a glass and offer a toast to our friends and loved ones, wishing them health and happiness.

And then we should put the glass down, because it was probably made in China.