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A remote cam 70 feet in the air in Maine watches birdies sit and tweet and occasionally fly off. Baby birdies are in there, too; at least one was borneded this week.

The Sun Herald AROUND SOUTH MISSISSIPPI: President Bush Visits Thursday

This story was buried on page A-10 in the paper, above a “boil water” notice for some neighborhood in Gulfport. Apparently ‘W fatigue’ has finally settled in down here.

I was standing outside in the backyard in the dark a few minutes ago. There was an owl-shaped piece of wood that I noticed perched on top of one of the main branches of the neighbor’s cut-back pecan tree, and I gazed at it for a while, before it flew away.

Apparently they still show this in biology. We called it ‘the tRNA Sutra.’ Or maybe I just called it that, I can’t remember.

Just 11 years after this film was made, we considered it an oddity created by a Martian culture. I remember being saddened that the film could not possibly be made ‘now,’ that nobody had been that earnest or unselfconscious in a long, long time.

Very, very weird to see this again.

One of the comments at Youtube:

smartgun (2 months ago):
“Because of the advances in virtual 3D modelling and CGI we’re missing out on seeing other important scientific processes explained via the powerful medium of hippies.”

First phase of Iraq war plan to begin early February – CNN.com

Democrat Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois asked Rice:
“What leverage do we have that would provide us some assurance that six months from now, you will not be sitting before us again saying, ‘Well, it didn’t work?’ ”

Rice replied, “The leverage is, we’re not going to stay married to a plan that’s not working in Baghdad.”

First, it’s a little late to have a “first phase of Iraq war plan.” A little tardy. Second, Rice’s reply to Obama is meaningless, in that it doesn’t mean anything. It’s like someone asked her “How can we be sure you won’t eat the meatloaf?” and she said “You can be sure because the meatloaf will be eaten if I do.” It’s nonsensical; it’s a political koan. Third, this escalation is going to happen whether I rant about it or not, whether I think it will be a horrible debacle or not. Given that, I don’t think it’s awful to hope against all evidence and common sense that it will work. It won’t work, it will be a horrible debacle, but W has the authority, the power, and the mindlessly compulsive pig-headedness to do it anyway. So here’s hoping it works.

The end of the Bush era can’t come soon enough.

A Man & His Mountain.

“I’ve had a few different jobs, a few different apartments and a lot of girlfriends, but one mountain,” he says. “And it’s the thing that never lets me down.”

I remember reading about this guy during his streak. He ended up climbing Mt Monadnock every day for 2,850 consecutive days before a bout with pneumonia stopped him.

It’s another Google conquest: I didn’t remember who it was, which mountain, or how long ago it happened. All I knew is that, eventually, I would succeed in re-discovering the story. The golden search terms: “climbs the mountain” and “every day.” Seems kind of obvious, now, but you’d be surprised.

Australia wins the Ashes test

England lost their last five wickets for just 77 runs in 90 minutes to be all out for 370 half an hour before lunch on the fifth day after resuming on 293 for five chasing 648 to win.

I read that as “England lost…. something…. half an hour…. lunch…. something… something…. resuming… something-something…. five chasing something…. to win.”

I once asked an English friend of mine to translate a Cricket story in the paper, to tell me who won, because after reading the story in its entirety, I couldn’t tell; it took him many, many moments to tell me that no one had in fact won, that the game was still ongoing. That’s several orders cooler than anything that makes its way into our papers.

This site purports to explain Cricket, but it’s in some sort of code. Also, this site explains via Flash the history of Cricket from an Australian perspective.

CNN: House Goes to Democrats, Senate Still Up in the Air

Because “Springtime in America” has already been registered by the forces of darkness, and because you might metaphorically go down and get a free tree at the county barn this time, even though planting it’s a hassle. And it’s not like you’ll be able to enjoy the shade anytime soon. And because it’s better to notice Arbor Day’s next week than it is to notice your first proctology exam’s next week.

Al Gore at TED

It’s like a swing score. You know: the Saints, instead of pushing the ball into the end zone, fumbled on the one, and some bastard ran it back 99 yards for a touchdown. So the play wasn’t worth 7 points; it was worth 14. That’s where we stand today.

CNN.com – Marijuana may stave off Alzheimer’s – Oct 5, 2006

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) — Good news for aging hippies: Smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer’s disease. New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function. Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana’s active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs. THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer’s patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. The researchers said their discovery could lead to more effective drug treatment for Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia among the elderly. Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary. Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment. Possessing marijuana for recreational use is illegal in many parts of the world, including the United States, though some states allow possession for medical purposes.

“Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills” is funny, see, because pot does the same thing, only less permanently. Well, I thought it was funny.

The first day of the year I see Orion is a good one. Usually it doesn’t happen until October or November, but as I’m getting up before the crack of dawn, it happened earlier this year. Went out with the dog to get the paper, turned back to the house, and there it was, right next to the chimney!

I can imagine how unnerving the wars are for people who watch television. They unnerve me from my little be-newsprinted cocoon here on the coast. If I had to contend with tv news as well, I believe I’d have to start work on a bomb shelter.

I’ve seen television 3 or 4 times in the past month, since Iraq became second banana in War coverage. Each time, a talking head of one sort or another tried to frighten the piss out of me. Somber tones, explosions, dire warnings, then commercials.

How is it possible that people who actually use the tv—most everybody—can function with all that going on? I simply couldn’t function. It would always be a Sunday evening in November for me, that dead feeling when the mind tries to recalculate the odds of the Saints making the playoffs after yet another Sunday afternoon fiasco. That hopeless feeling. That bitter pretend.

I use the sports metaphor because that’s exactly what it is, a metaphor for war. Or a substitute. Even better. Yes. We pound on the Dallas Cowboys vicariously instead of pounding on the real heads of real people. But you know that. Maybe if the Arabs and Israelis had really kick-ass soccer teams, they wouldn’t need to beat each other stupid. Maybe.

There IS always hope, you know. Good things can happen. But you’d be hard-pressed to find good news, or even the portent or possibility of good news, on television. That’s flawed, and a disservice to us.

There is always hope, and the world keeps rolling along, and most of us keep rolling along with it.

The Church of the FSM

Ah, you’ve probably surfed through this site at one point or another. Regardless, I want this, the best of all possible graphs, sitting in my blog for when I need to look at it.

You know what? All the shit that’s happening in the middle east right now? It’s all going to blow over. Seriously. I can’t get excited by it. Of course bad things happen; they happen all the time there. Doesn’t matter what the US does, bad things will happen there. Doesn’t matter that Condi and George are incredible assholes, they don’t matter to Israel or Syria or the Hezbollah.

The fact that Condi has decided that the conflict should continue because a ceasefire won’t accomplish anything? No one over there cares what she says.

It’s all going to blow over. And I think one reason why it’s going to have no lasting effect is that everyone world-wide will breathe such a sigh of relief when we elect a real president in ‘08 that we–the US–will have to behave like enormous dicks to fritter that feeling of relief away.

I guarantee it. Take it from me, the guy who lives in a world in which Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry were all presidents. And damn good ones, too.

CNN.com – Mystic mushrooms spawn magic event – Jul 11, 2006

On April 24, 1976, Lorne Michaels, producer of NBC’s Saturday Night, made an on-air offer of $3000 to The Beatles if they would re-unite and perform on the show.

“$750 is pretty chintzy,” George Harrison [said] to Lorne Michaels on an SNL episode, upon finding out he’d only get 1/4 of the $3,000.

Without further ado: Crackerbox Palace (prefaced by a short interview with George) from SNL Nov 30, 1976. Thanks, Zarathustra!

Firemen are paid to be brave. I think that’s the only job like that. I mean, cops and soldiers are paid to be ready to be brave. That’s a lot easier than being brave. But firemen do brave things day in and day out. They don’t have to imagine how they would react in a crisis; they already know how they would react. They do it all the time.

They’re brave people. And while it’s nice to see that civilization values bravery, it’s disheartening to see how low the valuation is.

God love the firemen.

I want to start a formal petition to God, requesting a fabulous omen. I think I could get a lot of signatures.

In a way, the world has gotten much safer in the last few years, because of the internet. There are bloggers everywhere, remarking about the things that go on around them. People constantly visit sites in other countries. I think now most people have “sort of” friends in other parts of the world; people that they wouldn’t mind seeing if they ever dropped by. With that sort of network, news travels fast. And people already take it for granted, this wildly amazing thing.

With any kind of war between countries, short of Ragnarok, now good people will have ample time to do something about it.

The internet, you know?

In my speech class that I’m taking, a requirement to get a good grade for a speech is to cite a “wealth of sources.” My informational speech I’ll be giving concerns how to book the best flight when going on vacation. Nice and easy. For the speech, my root source is faa.gov, a division of dot.gov.

Many topics have a variety of sources to mine. This isn’t one of them. There are no other sources; faa.gov is root. Any fact-giving anywhere else is derived from it. Any opinion anywhere else is based on it.

But my instructor will insist that I toss some more sources in there. Sprinkle em right on in.

A speech class is built and exists to treat students like children, which, judging from my fellow students, isn’t always a bad thing. Some of these people are terrifically dull. Oh, the stories I could tell. But a speech class isn’t built to allow for the odd grown-up who wanders in for unfathomable reasons.

The other reason Speech Class exists is to discover and nurture those people who have a knack for speechifying, of course. We’ve got to have a certain amount of people around who like talking to other people, otherwise civilization would crumble. But as an appalling consequence, I have to give two brutally pointless speeches (when all is said and done) to strangers.

I’ve given speeches before for classes and in the military; some of them might have even been worthwhile to one or two people who heard them. But I already know I don’t like giving them. They can cross me off the list; I don’t care for it. This speech class won’t lead me to bigger and better speech classes.

But I’m required to take it.

When the course and the instructor require me to have a wealth of sources, even when there is obviously just one source, they’re telling me that I am not root. They’re in my face about it.

The thing is, in the things I care about, I am root. Root doesn’t mean that I know everything, even on subjects I know a lot about. It means that, if someone asks me a question, and I don’t know the answer, I tell them so. For example, this guy

“If the increased southern temperatures [of Saturn] are solely the result of seasonality, then the temperature should increase gradually with increasing latitude, but it doesn’t,” Orton said. “We see that the temperature increases abruptly by several degrees near 70 degrees south and again at 87 degrees south.

“A really hot thing within a couple degrees of the pole is something I don’t understand at all,” he said.

is my hero.

We should be bugged when an institution’s policy is to deny root to us. That should never be gotten used to.