Separated at birth?

I knew I'd seen that face before... Sarah Palin is the reincarnation of Nellie Olson!

Once in a while I like to compare the various news sites online against one another, using their lists of "popular" or most read articles. It can be pretty funny, as well as telling. Anyway, today is one of those onces!


CNN's Most Popular
1 National Mall in monumental disrepair, activists say
2 How much skin is too much at the office?
3 Eight dead as canoeists sucked into turbines
4 Woman who died on hospital floor called 'beautiful person'
5 American keeps hot dog-eating crown in overtime


Al Jazeera Most emailed articles
1 Chomsky: US public irrelevant
2 Israel 'committing memorycide'
3 Obama's other Muslim problem
4 Finding Brazil's isolated tribes
5 US 'escalates covert Iran Missions'


New York Times Most emailed
1 Nicholas D. Kristof: The Luckiest Girl*
2 Well: The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating
3 Paul Krugman: Rove’s Third Term
4 Editorial: New and Not Improved
5 The ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire

* Had to check this one out to see what it was - an Op Ed bit about a Ugandan girl that managed to go from illiterate peasant to graduating from CT College.


FOX News Most read
1 Flat-screen TV Gas a 'Climate Time Bomb'
2 A Fitting Tribute to a Slain Navy SEAL Gains Attention
3 Grandma, 70, Gives Birth to Twins
4 Surgeon Ordered to Pay $795G for Cutting Off Man's Penia
5 Christina Applegate's Boyfriend Found Dead


London Times Most read
1 Adolf Hitler finally returns to Berlin - but will tight security ensure model behaviour? *
2 Missing PlayStations provide clue to the murder of two French students
3 The top 10 fan versus band scuffles
4 Ingrid Betancourt returns 'home' to France - but doubts emerge about 'daring' rescue **

* Reports on a Madame Tussaud dummy of Hitler being used in a new display.
** This is actually really interesting - IB is one of the hostages recscued in Colombia. But a Swedish radio station (RSR) has been reporting that the rescue was a largely contrived affair, and that the US had quietly paid $20 million (to who, exactly?) to manufacture a staged rescue.


The Nation Most Emailed
1 Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion
2 Obama's Evolving Foreign Policy
3 The White Whale*
4 Just Democracy
5 This Brave Nation: A Defining Moment

* E.L. Doctorow's keynote address at a joint meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society on the theme of "The Public Good: Knowledge as the Foundation for a Democratic Society."


Washington Post Most Viewed Articles
1 Compound in Red Wine Fights Ravages of Age
2 A Man of Seasonal Principles*
3 Leading With Their Left**
4 The Economy? Words Fail Me.
5 Zooming Around the Alps In a Homemade Wing Suit

* Op Ed re: Obama
** Op Ed re: election


ABC News Most Read
1 'Pregnant Man' Has Baby Girl
2 Brinkley's Soon-to-Be Ex Addicted to Sex?
3 Blueberry Cobbler, Flag-Waving Wings and Patriotic Potatoes
4 Brinkley Forgives Husband's Ex-Mistress
5 Sen. Jesse Helms is Dead at 86


CBS Most Views
1 More Passport Files Breached
2 Bush Greets New Citizens, And Protestors
3 Fit To Serve? Most Young Adults Aren't
4 Stolen Beauty
5 Judge Rejects Bush's Stance On Wiretaps


MSNBC Most Viewed Videos
1 Bush heckled during July 4 speech
2 Fireworks Gone Bad
3 Brinkley trial gets nasty
4 Video shows emotional hostage rescue
5 Brinkley takes the stand


Daily Mail (UK) Most Read
1 The floating cities that could one day house climate change refugees
2 Facebook generation 'form flimsy friendships and are bored by reality'
3 Our solar system is egg-shaped, according to distant space probe
4 Polaroid launches a wallet-sized printer that prints your mobile phone snaps in seconds
5 Meet the underwater Anaconda snake that could solve our energy problems


Telegraph (UK) MOST VIEWED
1 Schoolboys disciplined for 'refusing to pray to Allah'
2 Alex Allan, Britain's leading spymaster, found at home in a coma
3 Ray Lewis resigns as deputy London mayor to Boris Johnson over magistrate claims
4 Faceless figures cause a stir at Wimbledon, Harrods and Elton


The Independent (UK)
1 'I fell in love with a female assassin'
2 Why Canada is the best haven from climate change
3 No words necessary: The cartoonists tackle climate change
4 Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe'
5 Barcelona the most likely destination for unsettled Adebayor*

* A football (soccer) player being traded.


LA Times most Viewed
1 Baron Davis confident he'll be playing with Elton Brand
2 Goleta fire now covers 5,400 acres
3 Germany's newest citizen, center: Chris Kaman*
4 How harmful is porn?
5 Pringles are not potato chips, judge says in British tax case

* Basketball player.


Huffington Post
1 Arianna Huffington: Seven Things Barack Obama Should Do to Keep From Blowing It
2 Obama Vows To Expand Bush's Faith-Based Programs
3 Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens Undergoes Waterboarding
4 Wesley Clark Stands By McCain Criticism
5 Barack Obama: My Position on FISA


The Guardian Weekly (UK), Wallstreet Journal, and Christian Science Monitor don't have such a lists.

Weeds

Related to my last post... marijuana. It still blows my mind that it's illegal. And again, its benefits to anyone - medicinal, spiritual, recreational, experiencing freedom, etc. - are purely inconsequential. What is of consequence is that there's so much money to be made, that massive corporations are currently not making. The tobacco industry must have been hurt by the increasing restrictions, price hikes, etc. on their products over the years (I say "must have been" just because I don't know for sure, and what I do know is that such a massive industry usually won't let itself be stopped from making profit... so maybe they're raking it in by means unknown to me).

But imagine if weed was legalized. The tobacco industry could release an endless stream of products, using various breeds, endless combos (spliffs, blunts, etc.), and make incredible amounts of money. In terms of legality, it would be as controlled as alcohol, if not moreso, and you'd need a license to sell it (the end result would mean mostly only packies and smoke shops selling it). Fines for breaking the various laws would be even bigger than for alcohol.

Meanwhile, the drug war would actually be winnable. People look to chemicals for their speedy recreation, and to weed for their ambling sensations (I just though of those two words together, and had to use 'em, even is it doesn't make a lot of sense... but you know what I mean). So, people will always be interested in scoring some chemicals, but if weed is legal, most of those people would re-direct their hopeful thrills in that direction. If you can get out of your head legally, why go through the danger of seeking out illegal drugs? There's the potentials for violence, arrest, and all kinds of shit. Let's not forget the fact that you're buying chemicals from some guy on the street (or in the park, as it used to be for me, which was a nicer, greener and therefore more progressive environment... uh... right?).

But who knows what's in that stuff? It could be fake, and harmless, or fake and harmful, or laced with something, or it could be the real thing, and all but the first of those carries serious health risks (obviously, chemical drugs can differ greatly from one another; I'm generalizing). There's no recourse against a dealer of illegal drugs, and he has no liability for producing a quality drug at a reasonable price. Obviously, if someone wants to stay in business, you operate appropriately and ensure customer satisfaction. But there's still no nutritional facts information on the packaging. No warning labels! "WARNING: DIS SHIT WIL FUCK U UP GOOD 4 SHO'!"

Giggles aside, my point is that the market for the chemicals would drop hugely. And using weed would have the same ramifications as alcohol, such as not driving when stoned, not smoking in non-smoking areas, not buying for minors, etc. Except in Texas. And the penalties would probably be more severe, in terms of fines and any sentencing related to crimes in which weed is involved. (I don't personally think that one should be penalized more than the other, but that's simply how it would end up being if it were ever legalized, because of political demand.)

All of these ideas taken into account, in the end it all comes down to money; industry could be making it in astonishing amounts, and they're not. For that sole reason, it's bizarre that it's not legal. It will be legal again, some day, and it would happen one state at a time, not nationally, I'm sure. It is currently legal in Alaska, and the medicinal use is legal in 10+ states, with restrictions, of course. I'm hoping that my home state (Massachusetts) will be one of the early ones to legalize.

Actually, if weed was legalized in Massachusetts, my brothers would be making more money, as they rent out apartments here in Worcester (through me). The housing market would skyrocket, as hordes of stoners decide to relocate and get "freedom fried." I'd love to see some stats on the business impact of Mass's legalization of gay marriage.

Note - on the Wiki page for cannabis, it mentions that "On June 2005, more than 530 distinguished economists, including Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, called for the legalization of marijuana." This led me to the excellent site www.prohibitioncosts.org - check it out.

Chomsky on Al Jazeera and then I ramble on and on.

A good (albeit short) interview w/Norm Chomsky can be read on Al Jazeera's site today... you can also watch it (from Al J's Inside USA show). I always like watching or listening to Chomsky rather than reading him, because in the latter case it can often be like reading a technical manual. In person, he has to dumb it down a bit for people like me.

Anyway, he talks about the election, citing the people as being "irrelevant onlookers," which is not a new idea for people considering our process. But what interested me the most was his explanation of how our health care situation might well improve. Apparently General Motors has voiced the idea that it costs them $1500 more to make a vehicle here than if they did in Canada, because of the differences in our health care systems.

In unconscious synch, I re-watched Michael Moore's Sicko last night (I wish this film had gotten more notice), and one of the things that I again took from this was his interviews with Americans in France. They cited that, while they got ridiculous (in comparison to American) paid vacations and leave, their work productivity was amazing. I'd love to see stats backing up these anecdotes, because it's something I've always believed would be true, but haven't had the opportunity to see it in action. If anyone knows of such data/dada - or has anecdotes relevant to this - I'd love to hear it.

Chomsky also addressed our fake democracy, and compared it to the real democracies of some of the poorest countries, like Haiti and Bolivia, also very interesting. But he said that "You know, if peasants in Bolivia and Haiti can do this, it's ridiculous to say we can't."

My response is that a real democracy that serves the people is easier when the country is smaller, or the government is more localized, and that the US's extreme wealth - held in only a few hands - makes a "real" democracy hardest of all. A massive number of protesters in Washington DC can't affect the entire country. Not even the political body of a single state can have a great effect, forget about a "third" political party, or a big advocacy group. And when the government and media are owned by the extremely rich and extremely established, the systems of both (media including the web and its use) are being controlled in their favor.

In short, we're fucked. I know it's easy to throw my hands up in despair, but I throw them up anyway. But I also have hope. While I personally feel useless, the fact that other countries are showing themselves to be more functional can help lead us in saner directions. The fact that GM sees that it could make more money if we had a better health care system is exciting, because in the end, that's what controls everything. Industries are always tailoring their (not our) government to ensure maximum profit, and there are many opportunities for them to do so. They can ship jobs out of the country, of course, and this happens a great deal. But if more and more jobs are exported, people will go nuts and demand and actually create change, again, because of money. And our industries need us to have money. I was so amused by the news that Wal-Mart found that its customers were buying fewer goods at their stores because they couldn't afford them anymore. How's po' Wal-Mart going to make its money if there's none in the country?

Or, the industries can go to war with one another (brief tangential images pop into mind, of kewl sci-fi future wars waged between companies and their troops, logos tattoed on their foreheads, and no sign of "nations" in sight). If the auto industry can make more money by pushing us closer to a socialized health care system, they'll do it. Or they'll try. Other industries and massive corporations might realize the same, and something might actually happen. Increased productivity from happier and healthier employees could become a real factor to corporations' leadership (the happiness/health aspect is inconsequential of course, the productivity/profit is what's truly important).

The way to get industry and its few ruling bodies to make changes for the better are to show that it also betters them financially. Natural (solar/wind/hydro) power pays for itself over time, and beyond that point is free (minus overhead of course). Manufacturing centers should all be going off the grid as soon as possible, if they really want to make money (assuming they plan to be in business for a long time), setting up their own energy farms and the like. The fact that it will help save the earth is, again, inconsequential. Maybe even one day, we'll reverse the course of our military (the biggest expense of all), and de-privatize it. Although then I wouldn't get to see my kewl sci-fi future in action. But I can still dream... I pledge allegiance to Halliburton, hallowed be thy name....

More and more buttons....

OK, more button designs... the first bunch are screencaps from one of the funniest animated shorts ever, "Rejected" by Don Hertzfeldt. The other design is surely to be only the first of a lengthy series of buttons.

ANATOMICALLY CORRECT ANIMAL CRACKER

I am devoting a new photo (well, picture?) album to my beloved ANATOMICALLY CORRECT ANIMAL CRACKER. Enjoy!

Please feel free to inject him into your own pictures. He likes adventures.

Holy poo.

Ok, just watched and re-watched this season's penultimate episode of Dr. Who. Blown away. It's so far off the hook it's ridiculous. Madness! How they managed to cram that much into one episode is brilliant.



This episode is the big bang. Featuring every surviving Dr. Who cast member (as well as some from Torchwood) vs.... well, no spoilers here. If you want spoilers, go to my collection of screencaps that I wasted too much time culling. Now I have to wait six more days to see the finale! Gah.

Serial killers are running our country and we've got to stop them.

Report: U.S. 'preparing the battlefield' in Iran

I am fucking terrified.

Yet another button.

Otay, took me way too long, but I think this new button is one of my best:



Dr. Hoffman being the discovering chemist of LSD. I posted a memorial bit here, written by Tim Lott (from the London Independent)... he put the LSD experience into words as well as anyone perhaps could.

Stamp Fun II

My buddy Jon gave me this old set of mint stamps, also from China.

China, Cat. #776-780.
Issued December 16, 1947, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Chinese Postal Administration.

Stamp Fun I

I've started using the Scott Stamp Catalog (the be-all end-all of philately inphormation) to identify some stamps, basically trying to figure out some unknown countries of origin here and there. I finally found the listing for this one:

People's Republic of China, Cat. #269.
135th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), German Socialist. Issued 12/15/1955. One of a pair of stamps issued that day, the other celebrating the 85th anniversary of the birth of Lenin (I ain't got that one yet, but ohhh, I will).



Stamps are kewl.

PSA: Head injuries and You

Friendly reminder:

Let's say someone next to you smacks their head on something hard. Your own head is turned at the time, so you don't see it happen, but you do hear a THUD and him exclaiming AAAAAAHHHH! Naturally, you say, "You alright?"

If the person says "no" or in my case today "no, not really" and then staggers off, and then later returns saying he might be a bit concussed, consider checking on him and make sure he's okay.

In my case today, I'm alright. I got a bit nauseous and have felt woozy, but after a half hour, during which I've checked myself and how I'm doing repeatedly, am confident that I'm fine.

But: when someone says they're not alright, and that they may be somewhat concussed, please actually do something about it. Jeez.

Summer Camp, 2008

Kathleen Engle, 16, from Fairfield, California, said she had looked into the Peace Corps and other options but decided on the military.

“I was in fifth grade when 9/11 happened and that’s when I decided the best thing I could do for my country was this,” she said, playing a video game called “America’s Army.”

“I guess it’s going to be hard to kill someone, but if that’s your job and that’s what our commander tells us we need to do, I’m going to do that in order to protect my country.”

Elite US Army Academy Lures Kids With Mud and Duty

Ick + Philately

It's so humid that I've worked up a sweat while fiddling with my stamp collection. Which is going swimmingly, btw, and which is also how I feel about sitting in this humidity. Ha!

I need more stock sheets, though; I don't use the little gummy flaps to hinge 'em into books, I use the ones with rows of plastic you snug them into. I've got tons of stamps sorted into the cute little glassine envelopes, with nowhere to go.

I just got in a bunch of stamps for really cheap (like $8) recently, which were awesome, because they came from a book gotten at an estate sale. Inheriting someone else's stamps is fun, and they might have some rarer ones. Online (ebay and stampwants are the biggest sites, I think) you can get all kinds of stuff, but most often the auctions/sales are for individual stamps or series, with their catalog numbers listed, etc. I like getting a mass of stamps and discovering different stuff. The other stamp purchase I made recently is for 1000 worldwide (this usually means no American or English stamps), and a pack of 25 stamps from Malawi and 50 from Mexico. I mostly got those because they were from the same vendor and were dirt cheap/postage-free. But I'm collecting Malawian stamps in particular, for nostalgic purposes: I spent a semester at Chancellor College in Malawi my junior year at Colby College.

Otherwise I've got stuff from just about every country around, including from some that aren't around anymore. I've got a ton of American and Russian stamps, though, the former out of an interest in my country's history, and the latter because they're kewl. Actually, I can list off a bunch of countries w/bitchin' stamp designs, so I'm still just grabbing any old stamps in general, although this (with the above exception) is being curtailed a fair bit for lack of funds.

I almost made it to an estate sale recently where the guy told me there'd be stamps, but it was too far away. Eh! I'll keep hunting. Estate sales are a gas, btw, and if you've never been to one, you should check it out. People go fucking nuts.

In Memoriam

The best news I've heard in a while:

A Fitting Memorial: The George W. Bush Sewage Plant

If you’ve attended an event or festival in San Francisco lately - or even just hung out at a city park - you’ve probably seen them.

Admittedly, they’re hard to miss. Someone in the group is usually toting a large American flag, and another is often carrying a boom box blaring patriotic music. Sometimes one of them dresses up as Uncle Sam.

They’re the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, but don’t let the serious name fool you. The group’s intentions are in the gutter: They want to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant come January, when the next president is sworn in.

(Click to read rest of article.)

Entertainment Recommendations

For your viewing pleasure:

I just finished tearing through the complete BBC series Life on Mars (2 seasons of 8 hour-long episodes each, 2006-07). Starring John Simm of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame, it's the story of a cop that gets hit by a car and sent into a coma, yet (at least in his mind) he finds himself as a cop newly assigned to his same department, but in 1973. It's a fucking incredible series and I can't recommend it enough. There's a new version of it now on American TV which apparently blows, and I doubt I'll be watching it.

This was a ton of viewing for me, right when I was also zipping through a recent Sci Fi channel mini-series called The Lost Room. About 5-6 hours running time in all, and it's a fantastic trip. Peter Krause stars, along with Sydney Pollack and Julienne Marguiles (sp?) as a cop that discovers a key at a crime scene. It turns out to fit any lock, but whatever door you're opening with it will open into a deserted motel room. Again, wicked recommended.

OMFG, I might just vote for McCain!

It's a McMiracle! (hey, CNN's word, not mine)

Here's a cheery story on CNN's site about a guy who lost 80 pounds in 6 months on "The McDonalds Diet." I shit you not. The interviewer happily went over his daily menu with him in detail, both of them describing what's in them, and clearly impressed by their deliciousness. The CNN "news" person even mentioned off-hand that one of the items included an option (grilled vs. ... whatever else), though the dieter didn't go that way.

Sometimes, our guy would or wouldn't take the mid-day snack of Apple Dippers, which the CNN lady described for the viewers that didn't know, as being slices of apple; probably only about half an apple.

Also on the topic of apples, apparently the Walnut Salad he sometimes had at dinner is just a little cup of fruit, which has grapes, walnuts, and again, apples.

The background image for the text on the screen was mostly abstract, but gave the feeling of a sunrise or sunset, a nice orange glow. Inserted into this was a somewhat opaque version of the McDonalds' M logo and the words 'I'm lovin.'

Our man hasn't been in contact with McDonalds, but if he gets any support from McDonalds, it's for the Wounded Warrior Project, a charity he's working with (I looked it up online, and it seems like a great charity). And we also know that our hero - and they displayed this info when introducing him - he's a VP of some company (it's all initials, no idea what it is or does), and that he never graduated from college.

So why'd he do it? Somehow, it all began with that Wounded Warrior Project. He told his wife he was going to finally lose a ton of weight, and because she didn't believe him, he decided to come up with the "craziest idea I could think of at that moment."

This... news item? is so far gone, and so surreal, that I'm not sure how to even begin. There was no explanation, btw, as to how or why McDonalds was somehow supporting this extremely troop-supportive charity he's involved with... the only link was that he engaged in this absurd diet. And that he's on CNN, which is apparently now sponsored by the letter M and the word lovin'.

I love that he's successful, and never graduated from college. And ate solely at McDonalds. Are you like him, at least in the categories of non-graduate, patriotic, and fat? Keep on it! He's a vice president! And he's on CNN!

Wait... I never graduated college, I'm fat, and I'm supportive of our troops! All I need now is to start eating at McD's and I'll be successful and maybe even famous!

BTW, he has no plans to continue eating the "McDiet." He'll be eating healthy meals at home, but says that if he backslides, he'll go back to "what works," as in, the McMiracle McDiet at McDonalds. This is McCNN reporting.

Starbuck says... "YOU MOTHERFRAKKER!!!"

Just watched the "mid-season finale" of Battlestar Galactica... all I can say is WOW. WOW WOW WOW FRAKKIN' WOW. WOW.

If you don't watch BG, you should. Even if you're not interested in science fiction, etc. It's just a brilliantly written, well-acted show. Easily the best sci fi show in years, and some would argue, ever.

Why? is a useless question at this point.

When I read this on CNN's front page just now:

Bomber hits as Iraqis celebrate soccer win
A bomber detonated her suicide vest Saturday in a marketplace in Diyala province, targeting soccer fans who had just watched the Iraqi national team win a big match against China, authorities told CNN.

without even thinking about it, I put my head in my hands and whimpered "Nooooooo...." My response struck me as perhaps melodramatic, but, there it was nonetheless.

It's odd and maybe interesting to me, that this stands out as being one of my most immediate reactions to any of the shitty news coming out from Iraq in a long time. It's like... people get to enjoy a simple pleasure during all of this chaos, this Hell, and then some poor, misguided person is so far gone as to think that doing this will mean something. Instead, it's a perfect example of how meaningless life, reason, reality, has become for some of these people. Senselessness makes sense, I guess. Fuck.