Moving...

It bites. I'm trying to think of it like a big adventure but that just isn't working. I'm ready to be gone and be back in Texas. I'm tired of trying to figure out all of my stuff and everyone else's which ends up my stuff isn't being taken care of. I'm also ready to just light a match to all this crap and be done with it.

The limits of absurdity.

Leslie Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life, said her organization will continue its opposition to Planned Parenthood and likely would fight efforts to build a clinic.

"Let's face it, they're in the business to kill babies for profit," she said. "First and foremost, they get young girls hooked on their birth control pills, which don't work," Hanks said. (The Denver Post)

I don't know much about Planned Parenthood, but I am not in line with their thinking. I am against abortion and this women's comments do nothing to help the case of keeping children alive. I'd like to think the Denver Post went around to find the craziest comment they could to jazz up their article. Considering Mrs. Hanks is the VP of Colorado Right to Life I doubt the Denver Post really had to do much searching.

21 questions with Clublife author.

Money is the only reason I can imagine working at a club. It's the reason Rob the bouncer started doing it again and finally after years of wondering who he is, his new book has brought him out of the smoke filled dark. 21 questions with Rob the Bouncer. Link has a pic.

I haven't decided if I'm going to buy the book or not. Several months back I had e-mailed him and it turns out he is a jerk. A jerk with a mind and some emotion (this I can hang with) though as he sent a second e-mail later in the evening kinda-sorta apologizing for the way he came across and explaining himself more completely.

I think his first e-mail to me was an initial reaction he later regretted. He must have thought about it for a while which led to his second e-mail later on. It amused me to think our little dialogue made him think during the evening. That reflection and his follow up e-mail I respect. Of course I was steamed after the first e-mail and decided I wasn't going to buy the book. After his second e-mail I figured I could have come across wrong as well and just let bygones be.

I won't buy the book right now because I am moving in two weeks and need that money to move with. Maybe after I get settled again I'll make the purchase.

GOTCHA!!!

Wired reports on a new tool that allows users to connect wikipedia edits to corporate internet addresses. This has now turned into one huge game of GOTCHA! with everyone trying to find some embarrassing edit(s) that will shame their respective owners. The main Wired article above cites some obvious examples of corporations or other entities white washing their articles. As I read through many of the examples submitted to the Wired blog covering this I also saw many that appear to be a loyal employee acting alone to clean up their company image. Corporate malfeasance happened in many cases, but the weakness of this game of Gotcha! is there is no clear way to say what a corporation has authorized and what has been done by lone employees.

Bang Bang

Indulging a previously unknown itch.

Bang Bang (He Shot Me Down)

Written for Cher by Sonny.

Here's the original:


Here's the more recognizable version cut by Nancy Sinatra and used in the movie Kill Bill.


Craving something a bit more ravish? Bang Bang by the Audio Bullys featuring Nancy Sinatra.


Dalida was an Egyptian singer of Italian origins, born in Egypt,and lived most of her life in France. She to cut a version: Bang Bang in Italian.


And from the french we get a seriously messed up gay version.


The street represents: Young Buck and Bang Bang.


Is there anything Jack White can't do? The Raconteur's cover. p.s. I loved his work with Loretta Lynn. He's a huge country music fan. Check out the White Stripes cover of Jolene. Of course you can never top Dolly's but Sherrie gives her a run for her money. Sherrie needs more exposure, she's under-known.


Terry Reid's cover, smells like hippie.


Paul Weller and a version I don't care for.


All kinds of amateur music videos with the Nancy Sinatra version and there are a few more covers I saw on youtube that I just didn't feel like posting.

STS-51-L

On January 28, 1986 I sat in my fourth grade class room eagerly anticipating the launch of the space shuttle Challenger for mission STS-51-L. For months the entire nation had prepared for a momentous event as Christa McAuliffe, a teacher, would become the first civilian to fly to space. We did not have tv's in our rooms as some other schools did and were unable to watch the launch live. I was jealous of so many other school children who would get to watch the launch live and even more jealous of those kids who would get a chance to talk with the shuttle crew in space.

After lunch our teacher began class with a noticeable heaviness about her. It was early afternoon before we found out the shuttle had been destroyed during take off. Our principal Mr. McWhirter came over the loud speaker and announced the tragedy. We then listened to President Reagan's address to the nation and sat in stunned silence. I would have been very sad if I had fully understood what was happening. I knew the shuttle was gone but I think I only vaguely understood the shuttle crew had perished.

In the weeks and months following the tragedy my mom cut and clipped every article she could about the Challenger's destruction. We sat in her upstairs sewing room sifting through every news paper we could find. Mom bought extra copies so she would have back ups. She said one day it would be important we saved those articles. In fifth grade my "science project" was a report on the Challenger and it's destruction. I put together a scale model and had the report sitting next to it. I didn't win any prizes, and it was typical fifth grade workmanship, but I was proud of it.

Today, after 22 years, the dream of a nation has finally come to fruition. Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's back up in 1986, safely arrived in orbit around the earth. For the next two weeks she will help with operational duties on board the space shuttle Endeavor.

NASA has not been secretive about Mrs. Morgan, though they have not promoted her flight as they did for Christa. It is undeniable Mrs. Morgan is the star of this mission though. I believe her flight into space would have been more momentous if the first private spaceflight had not been accomplished in 2004.

In President Reagan's address to the nation he said:

We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.

Today we see his words fulfilled. Time, a second shuttle disaster, and the recognition of the consequences of human failure may have blunted our love of the shuttle program and the esteem it once had, but I still dream. And I'm still unbelievably jealous of the school kids that get to talk with the crew in space.

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

In memory of:

Francis "Dick" Scobee, Commander
Michael J. Smith, Pilot
Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist
Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist
Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist
Gregory Jarvis, Payload Specialist
Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist

Aiding the problem.

Zimbabwe's corrupt government has inflicted hardship and strife on its population for the last seven years. President Mugabe controls Zimbabwe as his personal fiefdom and eagerly intimidates, uproots, or kills any who dissent. In early August the U.N. called for donor countries to contribute more humanitarian assistance to a population starved by Mugabe's policies. The deplorable conditions Zimbabwe must live through are unjustifiable by any means.

Given the daily struggle to survive, removing or denying food and other humanitarian aid will only make this struggle more difficult. Scores of people will die of hunger, thirst, and inadequate health care if the international aid stops. While stopping the aid will lead to immediate hardship and horror, it may also be the only way short of invasion or assassination to bring an end to the reign of Mugabe. Providing aid prolongs the misery of the people. It allows them to continue subsisting under a broken government. Denying aid to Zimbabwe will contribute to the collapse of the government by bringing the people to a point where they will no longer tolerate the corruption of the current government.

Some may ask how anyone can make a decision that causes such hardship and overlooks the clear humanitarian needs of a people. I wonder how any nation can continue to support aid programs which indirectly support a corrupt government.

UN Calls for Dramatic Increase in Emergency Food Aid for Zimbabwe

Death of radar detectors.

A nifty article about Nissan's new safety features includes this little bit:

The technology combines radar sensors and a computer system to assess a car’s speed and the distance to a vehicle in front, Nissan Motor Co. said Monday. Cars with the new safety features will be available this year in Japan, and next year in the U.S.

Ten dollars say radar detectors will become useless as drivers begin ignoring them over "false positives."

Nissan to offer new collision safety devices