Month: January 2007

01/14/2007

“It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by things other than power.”

— David Brin

01/10/2007

So I have one of these idiotic requests for money, which I’m sending back to the solicitors with a polite note to never ever send me anything again, and I noticed this little note in the upper-left corner of the return envelope:

Do they think for some reason that such a note will cause the U.S. Postal Service to somehow treat this letter differently than the millions of others it’s sorting and processing today? Will some machine scanning envelopes pick up the “PLEASE RUSH” note and slip it into a special bin so it gets put on the turbo route?

Dorks.

01/08/2007

The American Dialect Society (who knew there was such a group) has awarded the 2006 Word of the Year honors to:

Plutoed : To demote or devalue someone or something.

That’s awesome. May Pluto live forever, even if only in our memories.

01/05/2007

Am I the only person who finds it immensely amusing that the U.S. Government is now saying that if North Korea conducts a second nuclear weapons test, there will be “severe consequences”?

I’m sure Kim and his merry band are having a good laugh over that as they think back to that point a few months ago when the U.S. Government said there would be “severe consequences” to their test. It’s sort of like the policeman without a gun yelling, “Stop! Or I’ll stay ‘Stop’ again!”

The humor value of our government notwithstanding, I fail to see why we even care about North Korean nuclear weapons tests. The last one was the biggest fizzle since the Chinese invented firecrackers– most reports said it didn’t top more than a few kilotons, which could easily have been done with conventional explosives. Ooh– now that’s something to get excited about!

01/04/2007

Dad says the American Forecasting Model predicts a big snowstorm in Denver tomorrow, but today it was almost 60 degrees and I figured I couldn’t pass up weather like that. So I hooked up with a group of friends and we played five-on-five ultimate in about a foot and half of snow.

Whoa, that was a lot of work! Running in snow like that is akin to running through the surf on the beach– you have to lift your legs high enough to clear the snow. Of course the fact that some areas had lots of crisscrossing footprints while others were still pristine made for a minefield of adventure. And not surprisingly, I couldn’t resist the chance to dive for a pass and skid across the snow (out of showmanship more than necessity).

It was a good time nonetheless, even if all of us were completely exhausted and couldn’t feel our feet. As we all climbed into our cars and stripped off our wet gear, someone commented that it’s not often you have to wring out your socks after a game. Whee!

01/03/2007

The official 2006 Darwin Awards have been given, and the winner is a couple of friends from FloriDUH. Quoting from the official press release:

June 3, 2006 (Florida): Two more candidates have thrown themselves into the running for a Darwin Award. The feet of Jason and Sara, both 21, were found protruding from a deflated, huge helium advertising balloon. Jason was a college student, and Sara attended community college, but apparently their education had glossed over the importance of oxygen.

When one breathes helium, the lack of oxygen in the bloodstream causes a rapid loss of consciousness. Some euthanasia experts advocate the use of helium to painlessly end one’s life.

The pair pulled down the 8′ balloon, and climbed inside. Their last words consisted of high-pitched, incoherent giggling as they slowly passed out and passed into the hereafter.