MWAHAHAHAHA

Someone at DOJ is unhappy.

un-FUCKING-believable

Bush gives a huge "Fuck you" to justice (PDF).

Madam Speaker Pelosi, NOW will you put impeachment back on the table?

Ow!

Da da da daaah, Da da daaaah... Da da da daaah... Da da DA DA DA...!

Today is the 6th day of filming for this minor, inconsequential, indie film set to open May 22, 2008. I think it's got a chance to be a hit.

Bush is an asshat!

From the department of Tell Me Something I Don't Know.

Read the last line (the trash line, not the God line, although...) and tell me you don't want to kick him in the teeth.

Update [06/27/07]: Seriously, no one wants to kick him in the teeth? Do I have to do everything around here?

Putting Manassas on the map

Not my school.

When the Hudson Brothers Won the Nobel Gay Prize
World History teacher: The Nazis imprisoned more people than just the Jews -- handicapped people, homosexuals--
Bimbette, interrupting: --They had homos back then? I thought they didn't invent that until, like, the '70s.

Osbourn High School
Manassas, Virginia

Overheard by: This is the last time I take a class that isn't Honors

via Overheard Everywhere, Jun 15, 2007

Now this is a storm

Uh might need a concept rethink here

Happened to me just the other day.

Alternate title: Only in Virginia.

Happens to Everyone Eventually
Woman #1: I fell down the stairs yesterday.
Woman #2: Oh my god! Me, too! What happened?
Woman #1: I don't know. I just fell.
Woman #2: I guess I'm a little better than you -- a possum was chasing me.

Target
Virginia

via Overheard Everywhere, Jun 4, 2007

Resistance is NOT futile.

We can take these guys!

The Cuddly Menace! (not quite the right title, IMHO)

Why does it have to be pretty?

Tick bite!

Actually this is the "bullseye" rash from the tick bite that sent me to the emergency room. Apparently, getting a rash like this from a tick bite and a raging headache, fever and joint pains means things are not going to just work themselves out. There were a couple of firsts that were a result of this.
1) First time I've been in a hospital as a patient (not counting being born; ironically, I went to the hospital in which I was born).
2) First time I've ever had an IV.
Woohoo!

So, they didn't tell me exactly what I have yet but the drug they gave me, Doxycycline is used to treat sinusitis, syphilis, chlamydia, acne, anthrax, malaria, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever (which I think I've had before), and my personal favorite, elephantitis.

Avast!

From quite possibly the most important site on teh intarwebs, Cute Overload.

Pirate Pup

Cute but weird flowers

At the diner

Harry who?

Hello Lyra Belacqua. This is going to be awesome.

Movie website
Fun
Some background about the movie and about the book, here's stuff about the author including his website and an interview, some stuff about the religious aspects, comparisons to Narnia, some of the controversy, some articles by Pullman and then there is this asshole.

You will never defeat me! Maybe not, but I will impale you.

Check out Anika's post about the awesomely absurd unicorns I gave her for Christmas (late) last year. BTW, check out the rest of Candy Buffet, it rawks!

Here are the unicorns I kept.

The awesomeness of Cold War unicorns is beyond words.

I've got a bad feeling about this.

Thirty years ago this weekend.  Thank you George Lucas for making it ok to be a geek (too bad you're a pompous jackass). Star Wars Memorial Day Weekend movie marathon anyone?

Time magazine review
Washington Post review

Uh, guys?

Houston (and the rest of MLS), I think we have a problem.

With the addition on Juan Pablo Angel it's looking like NY Red Bulls may finally be living up to the hopes and expectations of the MLS executives.  They are 5-1-2 with 6 shutouts.  Take a look at these highlights. I'm kind of ok with this development, the DC-NY rivalry, in my mind, was always the one with the potential to be the most intense in MLS... except that NY has always sucked.  Maybe now DC can welcome them to the elite of MLS which currently has a membership of one (suck it LA).

Champions League Final Today

Kickoff at 2:45

AC Milan-Liverpool: A replay of the 2005 'Miracle In Istanbul'

This could be a snoozefest as both teams try not to make a mistake. But I think it is more likely to be a barnburner, 3-2 Milan.

UEFA
ESPN
BBC
La Gazzetta

UPDATE: OMFG! I just put it together, my parents are in Italy RIGHT NOW!! They better be watching it somewhere!!! ARRRGGGHHH!!! so jealous!

The trials of working in IT

1PM Translation: Whatever You Do Will Have to Be Done Over

Project manager: We need to get the turnover rate for the past 12 months.
Database admin: I have that. I can give you the turnover for the past year.
Project manager: Great! We'll also need it for the previous 12 months.
Database admin: I'm confused -- isn't the past 12 months the previous 12 months?
Project manager: Yes.

1055 Lenox Park Boulevard
Atlanta, Georgia

Overheard by: Iga

via Overheard in the Office, May 21, 2007

Hee hee

This comes from I can has cheezburger?. Makes me laugh.

Chandeliers from the clouds

Owls water purifiers and washing machines

Lincoln Memorial

Coming off the Memorial Bridge

Bwah?

Where did it come from?

New tool

for getting your happy on.

Oh God, I'm laughing so hard my sides hurt.

Looks like the Chimpinator is on his way to an approval rating in the teens.  When you've lost the mouth-breathers of Free Republic you should probably double your Secret Service detail.

Welcome new "liberals"


And by "liberals" I mean people that are now saying some of the exact same things we have been saying for years (namely that the Shrub will destroy America, through stupidity, vindictiveness, corruption and incompetency) and who at the time(s) we said those things called us traitors and worse. And by welcome I mean STFU and sit in the corner for a while and just watch and listen and maybe you'll learn something about being a decent human being... but I'm not hopeful.

Here's my analogy of the situation in Iraq

There was a honeybee nest in a tree, we took it down out of the tree and punched it. Right now we're standing there holding the nest and the bees are flying around, all pissed off, stinging us.

The Repubs are saying, "we have to keep punching it until all the bees are dead."

The Repubs are also saying "The Democrats want us to drop the nest and run away."

The Democrats are saying, "But, we can't just keep holding this damn thing and we'll never be able to kill all the bees."

What we, the people are saying (or should be saying) is, "Crap, this was really stupid. Hey kid, come here and hold this until the bees quiet down, but, uh, first put on that beesuit and, uh, here's a smoker (smoke knocks bees out, it’s true). Only use the smoker on the bees that are on the suit and, uh, hey, all you people standing around, grab that hose, spray the kid down every once in a while. We'll be standing over here with this can of RAID to help you out. And once the bees calm down a little, set the nest down and take a couple steps back and we'll all come up with a plan to deal with the bees at that time. Oh and by the way, we're really sorry about all this, one of the bees stung us earlier and we might have overreacted a little."

P.S. Sorry, got bees on the brain.

Asshat

Karma's a bitch, ain't it?

I hope the door breaks your leg on the way out.

You're next, asshole.

Evolutionary thought experiment

So I was thinking about the missing bee problem and started thinking about what could be done if the bees became extinct. This would be beyond catastrophic and could bring about a quicker mass extinction than anything we have yet imagined. So, we would have to do something and what if that something was to create robot bees that flew around transferring pollen from one flower to another (just work with me here). Obviously the robot bees wouldn't need to actually collect the nectar of the flowers since the only purpose of nectar is to lure bees to the flowers to unwittingly transfer pollen. Ok, so now we get to the actual question, would plants evolve to no longer produce pollen? I mean, producing nectar requires energy and any plants that didn't produce nectar could direct that energy towards producing more flowers. This would give those plants an advantage over the nectar producers because they would be able to produce more offspring. Sounds like the answer is yes doesn't it? But if I haven't yet squandered any authority I might have by mass extinction talk and robot bee talk, the answer is... sort of.

There are two main reasons why the answer is sort of. First, evolution is a game of pressure, both positive and negative. Being able to produce more flowers would be positive pressure for the non-nectar producers, but because the robot bees would still service all of the flowers equally there is no negative pressure on the nectar producers. This would result in what I call passive evolution, the non-nectar producers have an advantage but it's only in the numbers game. This would probably result in nectar producing becoming a recessive trait (this is a massive generalization, I don't think anyone knows if genes can change their dominant-recessiveness and if they can how it occurs).

The second reason is the mechanics of nectar production. The most likely scenario is that multiple genes are involved, but for argument's sake let us say that there is just one. The first question is, is there already a recessive non-nectar gene? Possible but not very likely, there would be incredible negative pressure on that gene. Any plants unfortunate to exhibit the trait would only reproduce through randomness (drunk bees bumping into the flowers after visiting the nectar producing neighbors) or bee attraction via other stimuli (bees being attracted by flower color and not by the more powerful nectar attraction). So, recessive gene possible but unlikely due to the huge positive pressure of nectar producers and the huge negative pressure of non-nectar producers. The second question to ask regarding the mechanics of nectar production is, if there is not already a recessive non-nectar gene how likely is it that a mutation would create one? Not too likely. First, we've already made the unlikely assumption that only one gene is involved, then we have to make the equally unlikely assumption that one mutation would turn off nectar production.

So, what we have is, if non-nectar producers exist they will have very slight advantage which may eventually result in their dominance, if they don't currently exist they may come about randomly and eventually become dominant.

Which brings us to the real point of this whole convoluted rambling: evolution is crazy complicated. People who say they don't believe in it have no fucking clue what they are talking about, they don't believe in it because it is too complicated for them to understand. The majority of people who believe in it simply believe in it, they don't really understand it. Some people such as myself (I was studying to be a geneticist or evolutionary biologist in college) see that most people don't understand and see some of the mistakes people make but only a very small minority really have a good grasp on it. I mean, I know I said some things above about which an evolutionary biologist would say "You're right but not for the reason you think," or "you're wrong about this assumption." And the final kicker is that even those who really know what they are talking about would readily admit that there is a lot that they still don't understand.

Oh, Oh, this is just f#$%ing great

Really, thanks ABC. Like we weren't persecuted enough.

Harrumpphh!

Train spotter?

This guy is parked here nearly every morning

Cage of Steel "Death" Match

Two will enter but only, uh, two will come out.

Another iris

Give me shelter

Iris just opening

BWAHAHAHAHAHA II

It's got a nice beat, I can dance to it.

Music by Paul Holcomb
Video by Gavin

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Without pie there is only chaos

Seriously, wtf?

Impressive, no?

Bill Richardson is the most qualified candidate out there. Unfortunately, I think he is too tight with the “inside the beltway” crowd and too cozy with the corporations. But I think I need to do that research again to make sure.

Afternoon sun on brick

Latest VoteVets ad

This ad is being played in districts and states of Republicans who are close to breaking ranks with Preznit Pissypants and his immoral, criminal war. Amazingly, John Warner (VA-Sen) is one of the targets, maybe us Virginians should give him a call, (202) 224-2023, and let him know we will welcome his rejection of the Idiot-in-Chief and his return to sanity.

This is how I fill my day.

There is now a computer installed permanently in the main conference room to be used for presentations.  This will eliminate the need to connect a laptop for each presentation.  How do you use it?  Follow these easy steps:

 

• Turn on the power to the media system (blue arrow in picture below)
• 
• Select the computer as the source (green arrow in picture above)
• Get out the wireless keyboard and mouse located in the first cabinet closest to the door
• Moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard should wake up the computer and send signals to the screen.  If the screen remains blank:
• Verify that the screen is on, the light on the lower right corner of the screen should be green
• Verify that the computer is on, the computer is located under the conference table and there should be a green light near the middle of the face plate.
• Verify that the wireless keyboard and mouse are working:
• The wireless transmitter next to the spider phone should have a green light like this
• 
• The mouse should be emitting a red light from underneath
• The keyboard should have a green light in the upper right corner.
• If one of these is not working it may be possible to reconnect the devices:
• Press the connect button on the wireless transmitter
• On the bottom of the keyboard and mouse press the red connect buttons (the mouse will require a paper clip or pen to reach the button)
• 
  
• If reconnecting doesn’t seem to work it may be necessary to replace the batteries in one or both of the devices
• Log in as you normally would:
• Username: lastname firstinitial
• Password: your normal password
• Log on to: NA
• If the computer is locked by another user you will need to find that user or me or call the helpdesk (202-530-4890) to unlock the computer (alternative method: manually turning off and restarting the computer)
• If this is the first time you have used the computer it may be very slow for the first 5-10 minutes as the computer creates your local computer profile.
• When you are finished be sure to shut down or restart the computer.
• Be sure to return the wireless keyboard and mouse to the cabinet.

Iraqi Blogs

Iraqi Blog Count

 

I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now.  Don’t have time to actually visit any of the blogs right now and don’t really know if this is legitimate yet (in other words, not some right wing propaganda) but will check it out this evening.  In the meantime, if you have the time, check some of them out and let me know if they look real and if there is some way for Americans to directly engage Iraqis.

For Fu#$%s sake people, it's spelled LOSE not LOOSE

Seriously.

Metro after dc united game

Oops

John Edwards just became my top choice.

...well, after Al Gore, of course.



He has done and said just about everything I want to hear from my next president.  More detail on why we need to draft Gore and why Edwards would be the best second choice later.

To thine ownself be true and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then lose a game

The All Shakespeare Starting XI

 

This is awesome, combining 4 of my favorite things: soccer, Shakespeare, literary analysis and in the combination of those three, extreme geekitude.

To save the world we had to seal the portals

... And for extra protection we put a trash can in front of the big one

Must be a Nationals fan

Which I Do to Make Getting Pregnant Fun
Girl: That's totally the last time I'm getting pregnant. It takes all the fun out of drinking!

RFK Stadium Metro Station
Washington, DC

via Overheard Everywhere, May 1, 2007

Uhhh

How many invisible people does it take to screw in a light bulb?

I can do this

Who's with me? Anyone know anything about creating music?

Ahh, Bryn Mawr, bastion of feminism

Because That Would Narrow It Down
Drunk boy: I can't find her! I don't know where she is!
Drunk girl: Is she wearing clothes?

Bryn Mawr College
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

via Overheard Everywhere, Apr 30, 2007

Hi Anika! Hi Steph!

Sunday, 5 o'clock

Classy, want one

Damn it's a nice day

Sunday bubbly

at Open city

Peter and the pretty tree

Petals on an umbrella

More evidence that Joe Lieberman is an ass and the Washington Post bites.

I'll try to update this tonight but this combines two things that send me into a spittle-inducing rage so I had to get it up here quick before I lost all motor skills. Joe Lieberman is a schmuck and by giving him a platform the Washington Post validates his stupidity.

One Choice in Iraq - that's right Joe, it's called Get Out.

Johann Cruyff turned 60 yesterday.

I didn't notice if any of the clips in this tribute are from when he played for the Washington Diplomats (1980-81). Wonder where my old Diplomats shirt is?

Missed me?

So, yeah, I've been sucking at keeping current here, will try harder (ie, post from work)... (or post at times when I should be sleeping, like now).

The Stick is staying

Part of the Panda agreement with China was that any offspring would be returned to China when they turned 2. Butterstick turns 2 in July. But according to this (and this one which is more "reportery") China decided to give the Stick another 2 years. Pshaw, right, the Chinese just realized that they probably wouldn't win the necessary full scale invasion it would require to steal him back.

Who says dc doesn't have some cool architecture?

Lonely BBQ

Need something funny

This is a classic that will never get old and will never fail to make me laugh.

Think about it.

My thoughts of strength and peace go out to the families and friends of the victims in Blacksburg. And while I am not in any way dismissing the situation there, I would like to point out that this exact same kind of thing has happened every day in Baghdad for the past four years. Four years people. What kind of shape do you think you would be in?

crane at night

Google directions from DC to Dublin

DC to Dublin

First, notice the amount of time this trip will take.
Second, check out point # 21
Finally, in typical internet driving directions they are completely idiotic. Instead of going directly to Dublin they send you to France, through the Chunnel, across England and onto a ferry.

Tragic

What the....?

Maybe this lock is opened by this key.

Speaking of Religion (Christianity)...

Ah, Easter, easily the most ironic of the Christian holidays. Why ironic you ask? Well, as my friend Anika will point out to anyone who will listen, Easter is based on a pagan ritual honoring the Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess named... wait for it, that's right, named Eostre.

Sometimes I feel sorry for religion.

Seriously, how can the Church deal with this? If they just came out and said, "Look, of course we had no way of knowing if these bones were actually the bones of Joan and even if they were we have no real authority to declare them sacred," I would have some respect for the Church. But right now I really only have pity.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Joan of Arc remains 'are fakes' Bones thought to be the holy remains of 15th Century French heroine Joan of Arc were in fact made from an Egyptian mummy and a cat, research has revealed. Recognised as genuine and sacred by the Church, the "remains" are now housed in a museum in Chinon belonging to the Archdiocese of Tours.

Turtles Rock!

Check out the site, choose a turtle for the race, visit the race sponsors, donate some money.

clipped from advision.webevents.yahoo.com