Polonium, $22.50 Plus Tax

i wonder how much polonium philip morris has used in its cigarettes?

the ford motor company actually makes a hatchback......?

from the bbc:

Gronholm takes control in Wales

Marcus Gronholm took a firm grip on the Wales Rally GB after dominating the second day of racing in his Ford Focus.

The 38-year-old Finn, who won five of the day's seven stages, leads the final round of the 2006 series by one minute and 18.8 seconds from Manfred Stohl.

With just four more stages left, Norway's Petter Solberg, the winner here the last four years, is third.

France's Sebastien Loeb, who is out injured, has already wrapped up the world title.

i'm rooting for petter solberg, driving the subaru.

humans in denial - seeing the world as we would rather see it

from the bbc:

Row over Stradivarius 'secrets'

The professional descendants of "the king of violin-makers" have dismissed research that claims to have unmasked Antonio Stradivari's secret.

The Italian crafted over 1,000 violins, violas and violoncellos in the 1700s.

Experts have struggled to explain why the instruments sound so much better than anyone else's.

Researchers in the US said this week they believe a Stradivarius owes its distinct sound to a chemical treatment designed to kill woodworm and fungi.

But the BBC's Mark Duff in northern Italy says today's violin-makers in Stradivari's hometown Cremona - a small city in the floodplain of the river Po - are unimpressed.

One current violin-maker and restorer said it was absurd to try and reduce Stradivari's unique musical gift to a chemical reaction.

"What was the point of trying to dissect the beauty of a Strad?" asked another.

"To do so would be like trying to fathom the depths of Michelangelo's genius."

because that's what science does... try to explain the world around us.

that's the point!

i'm sure if i tried to make a violin, these very same people would tell me exactly what i was doing wrong, and why...so if it's that easy to dissect 'ugliness' why does beauty count any differently?

humans. always inferring greater value to the things we like the most.

welsh rally gb

sure beats rush-hour on the beltway in d.c.

had to go

from the bbc:









Andy Robinson's reign as coach of world champions England is over after a disastrous 25-month spell in charge.

anyone can make mistakes, but you can't keep making the same fundamentally wrong, ad hoc player decisions. bringing off your captain during a match...?

we have little chance of competing well in the upcoming six nations, and any hopes we might have had for the 2007 rugby world cup have already passed the point of no return. just not enough time to nurture the right talent.

still, there's 2011...

in the news: Wal-Mart Trips as It Changes a Bit Too Fast

good. have you ever been to a wal*mart?

we went down to alton, va in the summer to watch round 9 of the ama superbike racing championship. great weekend! left the hotel and walked to a nearby wal*mart to get some supplies. the most disturbing, soulless 'never-want-to do-this-again' buying experience daisy and i have ever had.

there's something just plain wrong with row upon row of super jumbo sized food items, along with everything else, staring at you from every shelf, row upon row of harsh fluorescent lights burning overhead, and slow-moving people whose only exercise in years evidently involve cable channel surfing, pushing their trolleys along, bursting at every seam.

make no mistake, you will pay, one way or the other.

nutty reaches 100,000th boinc credit

cast your votes!

from the bbc:

Chemistry teacher at Liverpool's Blue Coat School, Nick Cowan, says the packs promoting intelligent design are useful in debating Darwinist evolution.

It argues that evolution cannot explain some things so the universe must have had an intelligent creator.

just because a theory can be demonstrated to be incomplete does not mean that it is wrong, and more importantly, that the only possible alternative must be an untestable, unchallengeable argument (the intelligent design proponents want the very definition of science itself changed). why only this possible alternative, why not others? ‘must have had an intelligent creator?’

useful? intelligent design has been attacked so successfully because it isn’t scientific.

Mr Cowan says they are "very scholarly" and could be extremely useful in helping children understand the importance of scientific debate

‘very scholoarly’? i didn’t know such a term exists in academia. i’d have thought that such a definition would be reserved for peer-reviewed papers. pity that there isn’t a single one supporting intelligent design.

He told the BBC: "Darwin has for many people become a sacred cow.

perhaps because apart from quantum mechanics, it’s the single most successful scientific theory?

"There's a sense that if you criticise Darwin you must be some kind of religious nut case.

no, just that the ones promoting intelligent design are. after all, if a scientists could scientifically overturn the theory of evolution, don’t you think they would?

"We might has well have said Einstein shouldn't have said what he did because it criticised Newton."

i suggest you read some basic physics, mr. cowan. einstein didn’t ‘prove’ newton wrong, he built upon an existing solid foundation. newton’s ‘law’ of gravity continues to work perfectly well in our human world, and it is his theories of gravity we used when we sent man to the moon (and brought him back), put satellites in orbit around the earth, and it is his theory of gravity, not einstein’s that nasa uses when launching the space shuttle.

He argues that science only moves forward by reviewing and reworking previous theories and that these materials foster an understanding of this.

yes to the first statement, and an emphatic ‘no’ to the second. yes. science does only move forward by challenging existing theories, but by using the scientific method, an incredibly fundamental and essential part of which involve repeatable observations and an open mind. the only thing the intelligent design materials do is to question the second most successful theory humans have and offer nothing scientific in its place.

sorry, mr. cowan, but my money is on lucy, not because i particularly like the thought of being descended from apes, but what you offer as 'the only other' alternative has nothing at all to do with science.

Bruce Lee to get own theme park

from the bbc:

Bruce Lee to get own theme park

The park will feature a statue of Lee - who died 34 years ago - as well as a memorial hall and martial arts academy.

Newspaper reports in China have put the estimated cost of the park at 200 million Chinese Yuan (£13m).

But fan club chairman Wong Yiu-keung told The Associated Press he was not sure who is funding the planned park.

A ceremony to mark the laying of foundations at the park in Shunde, near Hong Kong, was held on Sunday, attended by Lee's younger brother Robert and actress Betty Ting Pei.

Lee was born in the US but first shot to fame in Hong Kong, where he had moved as a child.

His most famous films include Fist of Fury, Enter the Dragon and Game of Death.

the park promises to honour and immerse wary visitors in these 3 film legends in unusual , innovative ways:

apparently as soon as you enter, you will be kicked in the face 3 times in less than a second, followed by an appeal to use heroin more safely using a giant multi-screened showing entitled 'chasing the dragon'. the visitor will then visit a mock white-house, pretend to be george bush, stand blindfolded in the oval office, and using a plastic hammer, play 'whack-a-mole' with 'taxes', 'gun control', and 'the middle east'.

nutty agrees with devil to sell his soul!

....in order to gain entry into motorcycling heaven

ducati engineers admit they are still working around the clock on a special drool-resistant paint formula for the $65,000 desmosedici

"you're quite sure you can kill poor people with these?"

from the new york times:

Very Rich Are Leaving the Merely Rich Behind

well that's a relief...

dick cheney confidently predicts that diamond-studded, ruby-encrusted semi-automatic weapon sales are expected to go through the roof.

"thank god we republicans allowed the ban on them to pass; we'd have looked like complete idiots!"

watching tv is bad for your health...

from the bbc:


The body of a missing US woman has been found by her family, wedged upside down behind a bookcase in her room.

Mariesa Weber, 38, is believed to have fallen over and become trapped as she tried to reach behind the bookcase to adjust the plug for a TV set.

Her family spent nearly two weeks searching for her, fearing she had been kidnapped from the house she shared with them in Florida.

Her body was eventually discovered when her sister noticed a foot protruding behind the bookcase in her bedroom.

"I'm sleeping in the same house as her for 11 days, looking for her. And she's right in the bedroom," the woman's mother, Connie Weber, told the St Petersburg Times newspaper.

apple admits major design limitation in i-pod:

from the bbc:

The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour is the 'top-grossing tour in history', Billboard magazine has reported.

Since August 2005, the band have grossed $437m (£226m), playing 110 shows in front of 3.5 million fans.

The Stones' success comes despite the tour being dogged by delays and cancellations due to throat problems for lead singer Sir Mick Jagger, 63.

apple engineers are working on a way to get owners of the hugely popular i-pod to listen to music they don't already know (good luck!), and apparently, the rolling stones themselves are readying to stuff keith richards, and rely on very heavy use of animatronics so they can all keep touring in 2050...at which point sir mick will release his new album entitled 'i can't get no...medication...'

you can't beat living in scandanavia

from the bbc:

Danish road safety officials have come up with a novel way of warning motorists about the dangers of speeding - by using topless blonde women.

They have produced a spoof news report where the blondes carry road signs showing the Danish speed limit: 50km/h.

The video - posted on the web - is aimed at grabbing the attention of young male drivers, but feminists say they hate it.

Speeding has been blamed for 25% of road deaths in Denmark.

Julia Pauli of the Danish road safety council told the BBC that the reaction to the Speedbandits video had been mostly positive.

"If you want to reach the young people, you have to communicate on their conditions... So, topless women are working," she said.

She said the advertising campaign had been tested and in the target group it was really positive - more than 50% said they were thinking more about the dangers of speeding when driving.

Asked if the council would consider using a man exposing his bottom to appeal to speeding women drivers, Ms Pauli said: "Maybe. We'll see."

Humans show major DNA differences

from the bbc:

Scientists have shown that our genetic code varies between individuals far more than was previously thought.

the dark areas have been identified as the ‘conservative right’ gene, and the light areas are those of normal well-adjusted individuals.

e-mail to the democratic & republican parties

as fortunate americans all around the country gather tomorrow with their families and friends to spend the day in each other's company 'thanksgiving', eating, and watching football, perhaps they all might spare a single thought during their day to the genocide and the humanitarian plight in darfur.

it is inconceivable to me, that all americans living in the wealthiest, nation on the planet aren't demanding action of their government on this nightmare the whole world has known about (and collectively done nothing to stop) for some 3 years now.

aren't we, as fellow humans, highest order of living life on the planet earth, a species dealt a very favourable hand by a giant asteroid, thereby ushering in the age of the mammals, supposed to care about other human beings? it seems not.

approximately 400,000 killed. approximately 2 million displaced.

apparently, this current administration has the stomach for a 'war' in iraq - i call it an occupation. wars are fought between armies of respective governments. how's that credible evidence weapons of mass destruction coming along...?

living in washington, d.c., just a few short blocks from the whitehouse, i was sadly astounded that during all the recent mid-term elections, not a single candidate, busily attacking their opponents, campaigning on both sides of the political table, even bothered to mention darfur.

for the world's most desperate and neediest, the reality is, that like the turkey on your family's table tomorrow, time has already run out.

there is some good news; republicans in the united states of america are doing everything in their power to limit gun-control, and to extend tax-cuts for the rich. let's hope that all those re-elected & newly-elected democrats actually care about something worth fighting for.

enjoy the game.

http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contact

http://www.gop.com/States/StateDetails.aspx?state=DC

think you can handle it? - this is how suzuki used to advertise!

letter to suzuki: autopr@suz.com

what a load of bollocks!

TV ad pens with a Suzuki Boulevard M109R motorcycle aggressively approaching from the right and XL7 from the left before sliding to a halt.

* A man emerges from the XL7 and a woman steps off the motorcycle. The woman asks, "Think you can handle it?" The man replies, "Can you?"

* They toss their keys at each other in exchange and drive off in the opposite direction.

* During the sequence, the lead voiceover asks, "Are our SUVs as much fun as our bikes?"

* The commercial closes with, "It's gonna be a great ride."

* Set in the desolate Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

really?

are you trying to be ‘american cool’? because if you are, your creative director is an american idiot. smugness was, and still is, never cool. cut the cheese. you’re worse than biesch in the middle of a party, chomping on a block of cheddar.

any moron can drive a car fast in a straight line. let’s see our ‘cool’ people get in a world rally championship car and complete a stage. i don’t think when they get out they’re gonna be looking at all cool (more likely wide-eyed scared speechless and physically sick). the only thing coming out of their mouths will be vomit…

i get the point of your ads, but i doubt you do.

actually going really fast, like doing 145mph fast, whether it be motorcycle or car demands total concentration and complete respect. i’ve never once been to a race track and saw the winner getting off their bike or getting out of their car looking smug. ever.

i doubt either your creative director or your ‘cool people’ in you lame commercials have ever even been on a track. please write back and let me know.

conclusion: your new ads are lamer than a one-eyed, one-legged dog. – and i’ve owned two suzuki motorcycles.

so what time's lunch?

Climate talks at the United Nations.

From the bbc:

"That's the question you're not allowed to ask," the delegate wryly ticked me off as we chatted in the Nairobi sunshine.

It was the question I had been asking all the way through the UN climate talks - what is any of this actually doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

You would think it would be the one question on everybody's lips at conferences designed to formulate the definitive international response to climate change.

The reality is that climate change has become an incredibly complex issue.

Clearly there is no appetite in any government for doing things the straightforward way - mandating clean energy, banning coal-fired electricity generation, clearing city centres of cars, forcing builders to adopt stringent energy efficiency standards.

All this, we are told, will "damage competitiveness".

How is it to be that the world’s biggest polluter, the United States will not go down in history as the country that had the most opportunity to do the most with regard to climate change, but instead choose short-term economic growth, in effect giving a two-fingered salute to the environment and the rest of the world. Bush’s Republican administration will be judged not by rhetoric, but by its ‘tax is a dirty word in this country’ domestic mission statement, a catastrophic failure of foreign policy with regard to Iraq, and its head-in-the-sand approach and refusal to adopt the Kyoto Protocol.

And all the while, incredibly, he thinks he’s doing the right thing…hey, bushy; all those graphs, if you can actually read a graph that isn't related to taxes and the rich, aren't upside down. history, unless it’s written by Karl Rove, won’t be generous to George W. Bush.

o. j. simpson's "if i did it" book and tv special to be cancelled

he and his agent, judith regan, say his next book is going to be titled "this is our collective IQ"

the best player in the nfl

he's the real deal. a complete player.

shaun alexander's touchdowns in a single season record is looking likely to fall.

at last!

england beat south africa!

robberies, beatings, ebay greed: why it has to be a new gaming console launch in north america...

dc is under a tornado watch

i want to see bent steel as a minimum!

apple must be quaking...

microsoft's new zune

er, what's that supposed to mean?

you mean celine dion's nauseating tripe will somehow (and most worryingly) manifest itself into a meaningful entity?

on oct. 23rd, ford posted a loss of $5.8billion

so that's why, we're still trying to ram our gas-guzzling pick up trucks down your throats, during every single advertising break, every fox nfl football sunday. not a single family car.

ford - bold innovations...

"please buy our pick-up trucks, go on, please..."

er, we're built ford tough, you know...

yep, the immediate future of the american motor industry is looking real good with general motors and the chevy ads following exactly the same recipe on football sunday.

weird thing is, all these manly blokes, hurling giant boulders and buying pick up trucks in the ads will suddenly need to 'make the call' and get themselves prescriptions of ciallis as soon as they turn 50, upon which they'll amble along very slowly with their wives, gazing stupidly, inexplicably laughing at her because she's just put some flowers in a basket, take a 300 mile drive, and decide the best thing to do now you've got '36 hours' is to sit in a bath tub at the coast...

pick up trucks be damned!

both england and france lost

we lost 25-18 against argentina at twickenham (7th straight test match defeat...), and poor france got humiliated by the all-conquering all blacks. they have to be the favourites to win next year's rugby world cup.

the departed - and i'm not talking about donald rumsfeld

dicaprio: brilliant.

ted (well i'll be damned) haggard

From the family Christian book store: italics all mine.

There are many Christians who want to know how to approach God more effectively. (on your knees, ted, or is it the other way round?) God has made a way for us to meet Him and has created a map for us to follow (yeah, it’s called crank).

Using the tabernacle of Moses, (don't you mean pills, capsules, powder and some chunky crystals?) Ted Haggard shows how God has invited us into His presence and given us a road map to becoming competent (lying, drug-using, homosexual) Christians.

Fascinating tabernacle symbolism in this book includes: ·The two most crucial events in the life of every believer (don’t say a word until you’re caught). Followed by (I never actually used the drug....) · Four "basin basics" that every Christian should know ·How to move from believing to becoming a light for Jesus (just give me some ice will ya!)· Three choices that face all Christians in their journey· How to use the one key that opens the door to the (mom and pop labs) most holy place (What changes to expect as you move from the outer court into the holy of holies (er, sore knees, rotten teeth..)

The Pursuit of the Good Life offers a unique blend of practical application with life-changing transformations using symbolism that has been around for thousands of years. (yeah, but anyone knows that the widespread chemistry has only been around since the 70’s. duh!)

Q: What are some signs that a person may be using the drug?

A: he may well appear as an influential evangelical minister.

as they say on monday night football;

ted haggard got 'jacked up!'

BOINC: compute for science

Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

Want to donate your idle computer time to science projects?

BOINC is a program that lets you donate your idle computer time to projectslikeSETI@home,Climateprediction.net, Einstein@home, and many others. It's safe, secure, and easy:

After installing BOINC on your computer, you can connect it to as many of these projects as you like.

SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.

Climateprediction.net is the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. To do this, we need people around the world to give us time on their computers - time when they have their computers switched on, but are not using them to their full capacity.

Einstein@Home is a program that uses your computer's idle time to search for spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars) using data from the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors. Einstein@Home is a World Year of Physics 2005 project supported by the American Physical Society (APS) and by a number of international organizations.

Join team nutty

To participate:

1. Choose projects
2. Download and run BOINC software: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php
3. Enter the project URLs, your email address, and password.
4. Join a team - team nutty
5. Any problems installing, running boinc, joining team nutty, or want to know more, e-mail me at nuttyisms@gmail.com

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and my fantasy pick....

er... not looking good

the american vote

the past few weeks have not been good as far as the planet earth is concerned and the news emerging of our impact on the climate, human population, the natural environment and ecosystems in general.

some of the lowlights:

darfur: 200,000 people killed and 2 million displaced while the world continues to stand on the sidelines watching it happen…where is the most powerful nation on earth when the most helpless needs it the most?

of more than 500,000 weapons turned over to the iraqi ministries of defense and Interior since the american invasion — including rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles, machine guns and sniper rifles — the serial numbers of only 12,128 were properly recorded. some 370,000 of these weapons, some of which are undoubtedly being used to kill american troops, were paid for by united States taxpayers, under the orwellian-titled iraq relief and reconstruction fund.

iraq…even if the violence stopped today, does anyone think that this catastrophe of foreign policy is simply going away? all those thousands of dead and injured civilians’ families will not be forgetting or forgiving. strange how we see all the dead Iraqis and not a single fallen soldier…

if fishing around the world continues at its present pace, more and more species will vanish, marine ecosystems will unravel and there will be “global collapse” of all species currently fished, possibly as soon as midcentury, fisheries experts and ecologists are predicting.

stark warning of climate change. united states continued refusal to sign kyoto treaty, despite being the world’s biggest polluter…

despite all the media attention in the news about school shootings, I have yet to see one candidate advocating tighter legislation on gun control. amazing.

on november 7^th, americans will either vote or not in the country’s mid-term elections. the public has been subjected to relentless tv advertising by both parties that do little but attack their opponent. public office? higher calling? am i missing something?

november 7^th, america will find out exactly what its citizens’ priorities are. they will either vote to (incredibly) keep with the same, or desire a change. we, along with the rest of the world, will see exactly what it means to be an american…

some very good news: nasa seeing the light.

nasa to send mission to repair and upgrade the hubble space telescope.

from the bbc: The multi-billion-dollar mission has made a remarkable contribution to our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe.

Hubble has obtained the deepest views of the cosmos, finding high-interest objects for other observatories to investigate in detail.

Its studies of the Universe's expansion early in its mission dramatically refined the best estimates for the age of the cosmos. Its pictures have also produced definitive proof for the existence of black holes and confirmed theories of planetary formation. (apparently none of which include a 6,000 year-old earth created by an omnipotent being on a six-day work week followed by a day off...)

happy birthday to

victor!

nicky hayden wins moto gp championship

hard not to like nicky hayden; always thankful and humble.

even if i was rooting for rossi.

barbarella!

we, the unqualified...

i'm jeff suppan. i'm an expert on embryonic stem cell research. neither me or any members of my family have parkinson's disease or any other that might be helped by such research. that's right; i'm a baseball pitcher.

that's why i'm qualified, along with kurt (i've got jesus, but no starting quarterback job in the nfl) warner, to make this ad.

along with rush limbaugh, this trio are a very sorry-looking bunch of (not personally afflicted) celebrity endorsements for the republicans.

michael j. fox, is however, extremely well-qualified to make an advert highlighting stem cell research an politics.

a penetrating, deep, almost uncanny insight:

Bush 'dissatisfied' with Iraq war

"show me what you got"

jay-z and budweiser? there can be no doubt...

can't have it both ways.

i'm referring to the amish.

the spate of recent shootings culminating in the terrible deaths of five female schoolchildren at an amish school left me feeling very puzzled by their society. the most conservative of the amish groups, the 'old order' groups, are reclusive, deeply religious people that drive horses instead of ford f150 pick-up trucks . they live in relative rural isolation, with many having no telephones or electricity in their homes.

they also send their children to private, one-room schoolhouses until the age of 13, they purport to eschew technology and preach isolation from the modern world. they also do not join the military or accept assistance from the government.

from the bbc: charles roberts burst into the west nickel mines amish school, killing five girls aged between seven and 13, and injuring another five before turning the gun on himself as police closed in.

apart from the senseless horror in this story, i was struck by the immediate forgiveness of the murder by the amish community. those interviewed repeatedly stated that it was 'god's will' and in doing so, implied that the five girls' lives were over because god had chosen it. if he didn't, then, well, how can it be his will?

this response strikes me as neither rational or human. any med student can tell you that the human brain is comprised of a number of different parts, endowing each of us with anger, aggression, physical movement, memory, analysis, contemplation, reaction, response... - the list goes on. although science still has much to uncover, the basic functions and related areas of the brain are well known. what isn't known is why would god, the supposed omnipotent being, choose, through 'god's will' to end the lives of five schoolgirls?. this doesn't strike me as being an act of someone i would voluntarily decide to worship. come to think of it, why does god (creator of the universe and everything in it) need anyone or anything to worship him (on a daily basis)?

this whole omnipotent being thing smacks of ancient civilisations, ancient gods, kingdoms, and modern totalitarianism. abdicate all individual moral and social responsibility to a 'higher' order. the payoff? - huge, as long as one leads a life of strict observance and daily worship. the prize is everlasting life. caveat emptor, anybody? you're not going to find out until you're dead!

sorry; that's way too convenient if you ask me; that's a non-testable hypothesis. living in the 'simple' past was never 'better'; don't believe me?- go back and ask the poorest and those most disadvantaged. - a brief digression: why is that when people claimed to have lived more than one life, they always recount someone that was historically famous or significant? not once have i heard of anyone previously living a drudgery-filled existence, working down the mines, or sewing for up to 12 hours a day. always the main attraction, never the forgotten.

back to the amish school murders. these shootings happened exactly where one would normally least expect it, in the haven of a peaceful, low-key, religious community. the amish want to live in isolation, yet it's the outside world's police that closed in on the school. exactly what would the amish have done if charles roberts had instead chosen to take many more girls hostage, and the police hadn't descended on the scene? listening to their talk of instant forgiveness, it dismays me to imagine very little. has any of them actually asked this very question at one of their sunday services? sadly, it appears that when it comes to strict observance of god's law, one doesn't ask awkward questions such as 'why'? tragedy, it seems, doesn't change anything.

as for eschewing technology, i think they must mean 'modern technology'. they can't grow crops, or weave, bulid their houses or read their bibles (i presume they're printed) in beloved churches without any technology, so i'd like to hear the reasoning that they choose and just stick to the old practices and methods. of course, it doesn't take much thought to consider that when the plough was introduced, that this was, at the time, modern technology. 'modern technology' is simply that which is currently available.

humans have always used their brains to 'engineer' adaptation to changing lifestyles and conditions. for myself, living in a modern society with all its 'technology' and defects, it seems inevitable that the amish, like any other animal or species that doesn't adapt, will surely struggle to survive in the long run. this moment will precisely come to pass when the far greater in size society it dwells within no longer wishes, or chooses, to accept them.

evolution teaches many harsh and violent lessons. for life on earth that isn't homo sapien, it is the forces of nature and the balance of ecosystems that determine the status quo and the daily struggle of life, death, and existence. for us humans, it's our ability to engage in intellectual thought and reasoning that separates us from all others and allows us to soar. the willful abandoning or ignoring the realities of our present and past, who we are and where we came from, will teach us nothing about how best to prepare for our future - the one we will actually live in.

good luck to..

anyone on a dial-up connection trying to download and install the new microsoft internet explorer 7.0.

as if there weren't enough reasons not to use explorer as a browser.









mozilla firefox - unless you want microsoft to own your windows soul.

it's a tuesday morning. which sports personality do you NOT want to be?

is it:

a) mark brunell - two words: "gotta go!" humiliating loss on sunday against a winless team.

b) rex grossman - three words: "what was that?" monday night football's bizarrest game.

c) danny pedrosa - two words, but i'm not saying. picture if you will: it's the penultimate race (portugal) of the moto gp season. your team mate (nicky hayden), is leading the world championship in points by a slim margin in what has been a thrilling season, and is looking to win the title for the very first time, so you cut him up on the inside, lose control of the bike, and crash into your team mate, taking you both out of the race. the commentators are stunned, i'm stunned, the honda team manager is stunned and also angry. nicky hayden? oh, he was angry; he completely by-passed 'stunned' and went into full 'rage' mode.

danny pedrosa gets my vote as the sports personality i choose not to be.
er, except t. o. of course...

what do opposing nfl head coaches say before a trip to washington?

"relax; it's fedex!"

on what should have been a great weekend for sport...

1. the yankees lose. thank you detroit for not letting steinbrenner buy another world series championship, even though every year he has only one thing close to his heart, and it's not sport. baseball desperately needs a salary cap that has worked so well for the nfl in dismantling dynasties.

2. the redskins coaches and qb have everyone in the league shaking their heads in disbelief. snyder: proof that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

3. the thriller at philly, with the eagles beating the cowboys. pity the redskins couldn't make it a 1,2,3.

whose dime is it anyway?

what a sorry, pathetic excuse the west has in george w. bush, supposed 'leader of the free world'.

it's hard to imagine an individual in power that can unimpress more. voted into power on promises of tax cuts, re-elected by those that nodded their empty heads on the 'war on terror' platform, he has mismanaged his responsibility to those he purports to represent with breathtaking stupidity.

no-one's perfect, but he redifines inability and incapability. if he were at school, he'd be the one sitting at the back of the class with a dunce's hat on - the wrong way around.

in a culture of denial that spreads like a cancer from his rear-ended seat of power, 'the george white house show' instead refuses to acknowledge what even the most entrenched denialists know deep within; no matter how many times i say the same thing, doesn't make it true.

here are some top-ten highlights (sic):

the war in iraq: 2,500+ american personnel dead, tens of thousands iraqi civilian dead, and the situation deteriorating into an all-out catastrophe for an imagined democracy on american terms.

the war on terror: currently costing the next generation of american taxpayers $6 billion a month, and by all reports, a surging breeding ground for anti-american hatred. good one there, george.

the kyoto treaty. climate change? oh yes, well perhaps, but we're not going to reduce our carbon emissions. let the rest of the world not copy verbatim what we dirtily did to get to our present state.

hurricane katrina - the callous disregard for what was going on in new orleans by the president can only be described as incredible. i watched in open-mouthed disbelief as bushy saunters in to the famous aircraft hanger meeting and blurts out "you're doing a heck of a job". where were you, when your city needed a real man instead of one that doesn't even show his face in washington, d.c?

gun control. in a week that has witnessed tragic killings of schoolchildren!, all by semi-automatic weapons, this president allowed the ban on semi-automatic weapons to pass, preferring instead to hold hands with the nra, whose figurehead managed to shoot his own friend. exactly what will it take to have an open discussion on limiting the availability of guns in this country? i imagine that it will take a personal loss by a member of the house, until then, nobody seems to have the stomach for a fight.

the foley case. just when is a republican representative going to stand up and be counted against this administration? i read in the new york times earlier this week, that congress is all about making deals. pity. i thought it's job was to represent others. sadly, the democrats instead of seizing the moment and being brave, instead scurry around like rats in someone else's cellar, also making deals so they can get tossed a few crumbs from the king's table. and you call yourselves 'men of office!'

and last, but by no means least: the unimaginable horror and suffering of the people of darfur: where is this supposed 'free world' when its most unfortunate people needs them most?

telling americans to go shopping, isn't 'gonna do it, george.

i'm having a cup right at this very moment.

Black tea 'soothes away stress'

Scientists have evidence behind what many tea drinkers already know - a regular cuppa can help you recover more quickly from everyday life stresses.

The study of black tea - instead of green or herbal varieties - found it helps cut levels of the stress hormone cortisol circulating in the blood.

They found people who drank tea were able to de-stress more quickly than those who drank a tea substitute.

The University College London study is in the journal Psychopharmacology.