Storm and Panera Bread

We have had storms in the Dallas area for the last several days. Sometime after 2am, the storm we were having went severe. The winds were high enough to break off a fence post and break a fence panel at the top. The winds also toppled my wife's swing and "loosened up" a tree that has been in the ground less than a year. When I woke, shortly after 6am, I could hear voices and a loud knocking sound. I looked out and saw the the fence was down and could see a light. I went out and my neighbor, behind me, was in his Army uniform and was taking down fence panels so that they did not bring down the rest of the fence. My neighbor retired from the Army and teached Junior ROTC at a nearby high school. They had a drill today, so he needed to work until 6pm. He was going to put a new fence pole in concrete tomorrow, when he was free. I need to usher at church, tomorrow, and meet my son for lunch, as today is my birthday (a "big one"). We also did not have a working Internet connection this morning. I met my wife at the "weigh in" at Weight Watchers, and then had our usual breakfast. I had brought my laptop along, and when I told my wife that I needed to go somewhere that had WiFi, she told me that Panera Bread had WiFi. She also told me that it was free, but I did not hear that part. I went there and saw the sign, when I wanted in, that the WiFi was free. My wife told me that you did not need to buy anything to use it, but I bought a lunch. I told the young woman when I was ordering that I needed to get something compatible with Weight Watchers, and that I had lost 51 lbs with the program. She had assumed that Weight Watchers cost a lot and that would rule it out for her. I told her it was $12 for a meeting or 39-ninety something a month, and she didn't think that was prohibitive. I checked my email and read a bit and then came home. I had assumed that Panera wouldn't have anything that I could afford to eat, because it would be too many points, but I was wrong. With the free WiFi and some decent options, it is now "added to my list".

Two weeks ago, I applied for a passport and it arrived today

I had gone to the Northwest Station Post Office in Dallas near Stemmons Freeway on Northwest Highway. I did not know until I got there that they were having a "Passport Fair", but I had gone to apply. The "Passport Fair" just meant that the process went faster. I was impressed with the professionalism and efficiency of the people who helped me. They were all post office employees. My passport arrived today by Express Mail, as I had paid extra for expidited service. I had no idea that I would receive the passpost so fast. I needed to have a passport in place as I had submitted an abstract to a history-related symposium in London in June. No, I just have to finish my paper on the subject, in case that I am accepted to speak.

I failed at being both an alcoholic and a smoker

In the 1970's and into the 1980's, I was with a lot of people who drank a lot. Especially in the early 1970's, when I was in the Navy, I consumed a lot of alcohol. I had actually started as an underage drinker in the latter 1960's, and went on from there. I also had experimented with smoking, and smoked filterless Camels. When I was CIC Surface Watch Officer in the Mediterranean Sea in late 1976 and early 1977, I was a professional watchstander and would often stand a four hour watch on the bridge as JOOW or JOOD then go up to the flag bridge and stand a four hour watch as CIC Surface Watch Officer. By early morning, I would become a coffee drinker and would light up, like everyone I worked with in the watch team. I would part way fill the cup with dry creamer and sugar and them melt it with hot coffee. When it had cooled enough, I would drink it for energy to help me make it until I was off by 8am. At some point, I stopped buying cigarettes, but kept drinking until I moved to Texas. I reached the point where I was not getting much satisfaction from it and almost stopped, just because I had reached the point were "life was too short" to be spending any of it intoxicated.

Clive Crook, at the National Journal, on Al Gore and Global Warming

Clive Crook has an interesting opinion piece, at the National Journal, about Al Gore and Global Warming. Clive's suggestion about what we should do is to have a "carbon tax".

Sprint and the Networx contract

This article on GigaOM strikes a responsive chord: why would Qwest get a piece of the Networx contract while Sprint is left out? Sprint has the experience while Qwest does not. I have had a relationship with both companies and like both, but what gives? I guess Kansas has very little clout in an age where clout matters.

David Armand with Natalie Imbruglio at the Secret Policeman's Ball show

This video is "making the rounds" again. David Armand is signing Natalie Imbruglio's song Torn, and then she shows up.

Robert Crisp was traumatized by the "friendly fire" inciden

Later on the 22nd day of the battle, Robert Crisp, was still greatly pained and traumatized by the incident where they had mistakenly shot at the Crusader and killed the gunner. They rejoined the 3rd RTR and found the the Axis forces were hiding behind a screen of guns. They sat while field artillery worked them over. At night, they withdrew to camp. Robert noticed that the Germans were very effective in fighting a rear-guard action that allowed them to withdraw their forces in an orderly fashion. If they had attacked the anti-tank guns, they would have been quickly reduced to parity with the Germans, instead of having a clear superiority. Robert still had visions of the killed, red-haired gunner, that night. Robert was in a place where he just wanted a lot of fighting to help him forget the episode. One feature of the current situation is that all the battlefield clutter was German and Italian. There were clear signs that the British had won the Crusader Battle. This is based on the account in Robert Crisp's book Brazen Chariots.

This seems to be the best Natalie Imbruglio pic I can see at work

Given firewall and "SafeSearch", this seems to be the best Natalie Imbruglio pic I can see at work.

The latest celebrity pics on Hussy are for Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

At alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.hussy, it is now devolved to racy celebrity pics. THe latest subject is Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The pics were posted to the newsgroup today, with indexes.

Early in the morning of the 22nd day of the battle

Robert Crisp drove out with two other Stuarts and found the City of London Yeomanry, who were equipped with Crusaders. The commander told Robert that to the northeast, any forces that he encountered were likely to enemy. It was still before dawn, with the first signs in the sky. Robert sighted what appeared to be Pzkw IIIs in the distance. As he closed, he was sure that was what they were. As they closed, Robert's tanks opened fire. Suddenly, he realized that he had knocked out a Crusader by mistake. The tank commander told him "You bloody fool. You've killed my gunner." Robert was devastated. His radio operator brought him out of a daze, saying "The major wants you on the set, sir". After the war, "a tall young man in a Fleet Street pub, who said pleasantly: 'You won't remember me, but we have met before'". It turned out that he had been in the Crusader that Robert had knocked out. The young man seemed at peace with the situation, having been through the rest of the war and said: "'Bloody good shooting,' he said, grinning broadly, 'There were four holes in the turret before we could even get the engine started. You must have had a damn fine gunner'." This is based on the account in Robert Crisp's book Brazen Chariots.

I am a non-fan of Heather Mills, but I was impressed

To say that I am a "non-fan" of Heather Mills is an understatement. I don't care for her chasing all the trendy, leftist causes, in hopes of being "another Princess Di". But I did see her dance, last night, and I had to admit that I was impressed. HelloMagazine.com has the story about Heather on Dancing With the Stars. Heather may not have a chance in Britain, as Paul McCartney is considered to be a god, but in the "Heather does America" deal, she might do better.

Gwen Stefani's non-appearance on American Idol

Ann Althouse says that Gwen Stefani seems to have only appeared on American Idol by way of video editing. She did not seem to do the sort of real tutoring that other celebrity guests have done.

Paul Graham has a new essay: "Why to not not start a startup"

Paul Graham's latest essay has a funny name: "Why to Not Not Start a Startup". He mostly addresses the benefits of doing startups, although he also has some cautions about when not to do it.

The Brooke Shields "pretty baby" pic

We may not have a Dakota Fanning, naked pic, but there is always the Brooke Shields "pretty baby" pic.

This was the "Paula Yates, naked" pic

This is the classic Paula Yates, naked, pic. Paula Yates, of course, was Peaches Geldof's mother and ex-wife of Bob Geldof. Paula died of a heroin overdose, not too nice.

Yet another Peaches Geldof pic

In case you weren't bored yet with Peaches Geldof pics, here is one of her in a "glitter dress".

Another Peaches Geldof pic

Here is a Peaches Geldof pic where she is trying to look glamorous in a super short dress.

Paris Hilton is very low-waisted?

This pic makes it look like Paris Hilton has an extremely low waist (a skirt blow-up).

I am trying out "Amazon Context Links"

With some trepidation, I am trying out Amazon Context Links, a new thing. My questions are how it will work with a blog, where content is dynamic, and what it will do to the page. The blurb says it is good for bloggers with archived pages, which we have. Here goes!

Was anyone in Viet Nam in 1968 to 1969?

Was anyone in Viet Nam, near Khe Sanh and LZ Van de Grift, in 1968 or 1969 who might remember a tall, young Marine? He was 6ft-6in and 18 and then 19 years old. He started out as a private and then was promoted to lance corporal. He was in an artillery unit. He thought that his lieutenant's name was Thomas Houston Pace III, but that seems to be not correct.

This doesn't make any sense: Kathy Sierra

Kathy Sierra is an author and is a well-known speaker. She is lying low after receiving sexual and violent threats, including death threats. While this might be the work of goofball creeps, it has the ring of leftists, who have a reputation for being goofball creeps. What did she do to anger leftist goofball creeps? After SXSW, did someone decide that she was (horrors) right wing?

Today's "Payne & Ink" is good

Occasionally, the Detroit News cartoonist Henry Payne does these multi-panel cartoons that he calls "Payne & Ink". Today, he had a new "Payne & Ink" that I enjoyed.

Weight Watchers update: I am down 51.8 lbs

When I look at the amount that I am down, 51.8 pounds, I cannot imagine that I had gotten in such bad shape, in early 2005, but I had. I only started seriously dealing with the situation when I started Weight Watchers on the last Saturday of February 2006. I am not losing weight particularly fast. I know some people who come to the same meeting that I do who are losing 2 or 2.5 pounds a week. My weight loss is somewhat less than 1 pound per week. The most important thing to me is that I have made this much progress, and I have less then ten pounds to go.

Some old standards: Paris Hilton

How about an "old standard" Paris Hilton pic. Her bod and her racy reputation are her greatest assets (except for her money).

Scarlett Johansson "hanging out"

"I don't like you in that way" has a pic of Scarlett Johansson "hanging out" (or least showing more than would be approved of in polite society).

Antonella Barba wading in the surf

There are still a few new (to me) pics of Antonella Barba "out there". There is one of her wading in the surf with friends, for example. The pic is from "I Don't like you in that way".

New phones

The battery on my three year old Sanyo 8100 had deteriorated to the point where I could not talk very long before the started started to beep, because it was low on charge. I had bought the Sanyo 8100 at the Sprint store in Minnetonka, Minnesota, near the I394 service road. The phone is still good, but the cost of a new battery is less than upgrading to a new phone at Radio Shack. I got a new Sayno Katana phone at Radio Shack. I have the black one. I liked it so well that I got my wife the "pink" Katana. The katana is almost a year old product, dating from about June 2006. The camera is really low-end, compared to the Motorala Razr V3. I have been back in Texas since June of 2004, as I had promised my wife that I would look for work here, instead of in the Minneapolis area. During the worst of the economic downturn, there was not that much work in the Dallas area, but I was able to keep working in Minneapolis, although at ever decreasing rates. I have been doing software development consulting now for fifteen years. That is apparently unusual.

One thing that I think is weird: binary newsgroups that go into hibernation

I am not sure why this happens, but in the somewhat more than 8 years that I have been looking at binary newsgroups, almost all have them have gone into periods of what I would call "hibernation". Not all come out of that state, as that only happens when people start posting to them, again, after they were either dormant or left for only spammers. The problem is that to know when groups come alive again, you have to periodically check them.

I hate RAR archives with many parts (and other things)

There are some people who really seem to like these RAR archives posted to a binary newsgroup that have many parts. The problem that I have with them is invariably, one of the parts will no longer be available, making the rest of the file totally useless. I understand the need for multi-part messages for things such as large video files, but News Rover can tell that a part is not available and I would not even try to download. My other beef is with video files that require something, such as a codec that I don't have. Windows Media Player seems to indicate that most of these involve some sort of audio requirement. Other times, it will just give a message that it can't be played with no hint as to the issue.

Knut, the polar bear cub

I was in Denver in 1995, when they had the two polar bear cubs that they struggled to save and to raise. They were subsequently shipped off to Florida, as they could not handle two more adult polar bears. Tammy Bruce has the pics of Knut, the polar bear cub in Berlin.

"Bill Clinton's new girlfriend"?

The First Post has an article about Bill Clinton and Belinda Stronach that calls her "Bill Clinton's new girlfriend". This is a fake, needless to say, as is the other racy pic. Belinda Stronach has some obvious assets that would interest former President Clinton.

Looking for Nicole Sullivan "behind the firewall"

I am sitting here, "behind the firewall", looking for racy Nicole Sullivan pics. They seem hard to find. I will look some more when I get home, and don't have the firewall in between me and pics (with "safesearch" off).

Was the tainted pet food a deliberate attempt to poison animals?

When I saw the Yahoo Finance headline, I immeditately wondered if this was an attempt by someone to poison animals. You tell me.

Yes, Kim Kardashian still has a problem...

You can see the nature of Kim Kardashian's problem in this pic. She apparently let herself be filmed, so what can she complain about? Perhaps she wants a piece of the action.

More Elsa Pataky

This really shows how nice Elsa Pataky is.

Al Gore is really looking bad

I was shocked to see how much weight Al Gore has put on, recently. There have been jokes about his size for some time, but he seems to have totally lost control of his weight.

So why is Elsa Pataky a hot topic?

So why is Elsa Pataky a hot topic? Apparently, some Paparrazi pics are the reason. "Ireland: The Voice of a Nation" has the story. This is another pic.

Elsa Pataky

I was not able to get to any good pics at work, as I was concerned about being seen looking at what I could see, of the "good stuff". I see why there is a Spanish fan site for her, as she was born in Madrid. Most pics of her seem fairly heavily air-brushed. This is the sort of thing that there is.

This must be the "Haley Scarnato-in-hotpants" pic

I heard about Haley Scarnato in hot pants, with an open-backed top. This must be the pic. (this is from tv.com)

Winona Ryder?

How about Winona Ryder? She seems pretty nice, even if she is a goofy leftist. (how about "both sides, now"?)

The latest celebrity racy pics

There are new celebrity racy pics posted to alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.hussy. There are many Susan Sarandon, Stacey Dash, Winona Ryder, and Natalie Portman pics.

Work safe, but racy, Elisha Cuthbert

I wanted to see what I could find in the way of Elisha Cuthbert pics. She is nice, and this is what I could find. The pic is apparently from "djwho.com".

I appreciate Marc Cooper

I sent an email, with some background information about myself, to Marc Cooper. A short time later, I had a courteous reply. It just confirms what I thought to true: that he is a classy guy. I mostly disagree with him, but I still read his blog on a regular basis.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey

Deborah Jeane Palfrey is not quite the glamorous type like Jody Gibson, but she was allegedly running a business that providing services to a large number of high-rollers in Washington DC. She had what she says was a legitimate escort service, if there is such a thing. The Blue Star Chronicles has the story. This is Deborah's pic.

Governor Kathleen Blanco saw the writing on the wall

Governor Kathleen Blanco, after her dismal Hurricane Katrina performance, did not stand a chance of re-election. Even she could "read the writing on the wall" and announced that she would not stand for re-election as governor of Louisiana. Supposedly, Republican Bobby Jindal is running way ahead of anyone else for the governorship. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has the story about Kathleen Blanco's announcement.

The SiteMeter sm1 server is finally back and working correctly

After the "big meltdown", when the SiteMeter sm1 server came back, it was giving visits that were just a little bit lower than the page views. For this blog, that is incorrect. The pageviews to visits is close to 1.5 to 1. The stats for yesterday now align very nicely with IndexTools stats.

Do we like Rachel Bilson?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Eva Longoria definitely likes to show off what she has

I do like Eva Longoria. She is proud of how she looks and likes to show it off.

Yes, The Phat Phree has some nice Molly Ringwald pics

Just looking around, The Phat Phree has as good as any pics of Molly Ringwald from the movie Malicious. Here is one. Let's see if I can link directly to it. Yes, it seems that I can.

Erin Gray

I have heard that Erin Gray's family were nudists, when she was young. That made me wonder what might be "out there" for her. This seems to be the limit. FreeNudeCelebs.dk has a few low-res pics, but they cannot be linked directly, so I have it anyway.

I would advise not clicking on Spam which mentions "Loliltas"

Because I have public email addresses, I receive a good deal of spam. Every few days, there are the inevitable messages which talk about Lolitas. My advice is to not click on links. Probably the "worst case scenario" is that it is entrapment by the authorities. Typically, the URLs are uniquely encoded, so that even if you are otherwise anonymous, the URL identifies you as the recipient of the email with the link. The next possibility is that you will pick up malware by clicking the link. Perhaps the link is just to an otherwise anonymous site, but I would not even consider taking the risk. You might get away with it, but the risks are too great to try. Good luck, if you go ahead and click a link, despite this warning.

Scott Johnson, at Power Line, writes about censorship at YouTube

Google is obviously so ready to censor, that now that they own YouTube, we should not be surprised to see censorship there. Scott Johnson, at the Power Line blog, writes about an instance of YouTube censorship. As long as the big search engines have a monopoly, we are going to be saddled with this sort of censorship. Some is politics, and some is political correctness. Some is to protect those who might be embarrassed.

Encountering a Bobcat

Ann Althouse wonders about a guy who said "Here, kitty kitty" to a Bobcat. Bobcats are pretty large animals, although they are nothing like a mountain lion. The State of Kentucky has a nice Bobcat pic. This sort of encounter is a little bit like our friend Hazel, who had a Scottish Wildcat come in through her cat door, into her kitchen near Edinburgh.

Cele|bitchy says that Lisa Bund is a Kelly Clarkson lookalike

Cele|bitchy has a piece about the Superstart sucht den Superstar show and how Lisa Bund looks like Kelly Clarkson. They say that Lisa sings well, also. They have a good bit of YouTube video, as well.

An old, "reliable" newsgroup: girlfriends

The group, alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.girlfriends (and its close cousins with similar names) is all spam, or spam-like, but a generally interesting sort of spam shows up there. You will quickly recognize what you find uninteresting, from the header, and can simply delete without downloading. I happen to use NewsRover, so it is particularly convenient.

I've given up trying to predict whether a newsgroup is all spam or not from the number of messages

It is a pretty safe bet that a binary group with just a few posts is dead and would be a waste to subscribe. Even if a group has 50,000 plus posts, it still may be all spam. Spam isn't totally bad. Some can be interesting, but most is a waste of time. Still, many posts most likely means that a group is having new messages posted all the time. Even if a percentage is spam, you can always recognize it and delete without downloading. Names are misleading, as well, for groups like "schoolgirls" has pics of 20-30 year old women, or at least last time I looked, that was true (that still seems to be true).

Who is Lisa Bund, you might ask?

You apparently need to be German to know who Lisa Bund (Anna-Lisa Bund) is. She is on a German show that is similar to American Idol, except it is apparently called "Deutschland sucht die SuperStar". Lisa Bund is 18 years old and has a fan-following and a fan site: lisabund.de.

For those so inclined: Horny Rob

One of the most reliable binary news groups has been alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.hornyrob. Recently, there have been a large number of about 2.5mb mpg files posted. Most are from Rob's sex tourism in Bulgaria.

I enjoy dealing with competent and efficient professionals

I needed to start the process to get a passport, so I went to the Northwest Station on Northwest Highway in Dallas this morning. I may need to go to London to speak in June, and did not have a passport. When I arrived, I saw a sign that said they were having a "passport fair" this weekend. I went inside and got in line. The line was somewhat long, but the two women at the table were efficient and I waited no more than an hour. The actual processing time was short, as I had filled out the form online. I had gotten my passport photos taken at Walgreen's on Thursday, while on the way home. The woman who processed the transaction in the office at the postoffice did a good job, as did the man who cut a money order for me. The woman got the Express Mail packages ready, I paid with my debit card. Actual processing was about ten minutes, max. If I had not had photos, they could have taken them there. I was pleased with what a good job they did.

A sort of "fun" pic

I saw again the fake photo of Carl Rove being dragged away in handcuffs. The fake is pretty nice work. Our lefty buddies seem to think that something about what Carl Rove has done justifies this.

A nice little Britney Spears pic

Mtv.com has a nice little Britney Spears pic.

I am not sure what to make of what Ramla writes

I saw this blog, written by Ramla, "Next>", that seems interesting. Is there really rioting in Islamabad? Something needs to happen to overturn the Islamists who repress the populace in Pakistan, but is this real or wishful thinking? We know of a horror story where a young man was tricked into traveling to Pakistan by his conservative parents. The deal was set up so that he would not be able to return to the United States, and would be forced to stay and be reprogrammed into a good little Islamic citizen. Shabbir had committed the unpardonable sin of "going American".

Gmail seems to be misbehaving today

I have not been able to get Gmail to respond for over an hour. That just demonstrates the risk involved in using such a service as my primary email, which is what Gmail is for me.

I have a theory that at least some of the spam you receive, especially on some marginal topics where I would almost expect that it is some form of entrapment, has links that are coded to you and would positively identity that you clicked on the link. For example, I received a "bad" spam email with this link, which I will not make clickable:

http://uk.geocities.com/vchn675hgfxg/index.html?W1FRVFxXVEBzW lddRVtAWVldXlFYH1FcXA=

I suppose that using this sort of URL, with the random character name under the UK geocities domain, is an attempt to remain hidden. Either that, or it is an attempt to look like something that is trying to remain hidden. They didn't do too good a job, if they are broadcasting this to the world, in spam. I would not recommend clicking on links such as this, especially on marginal topics, where you don't know the motivation of the emailer. One possibility is that when you bring up a page, a "bad" script is run.

This is probably only of interest to bloggers, but SiteMeter server sm1 is still in meltdown

SiteMeter, in the two-and-a-half years that I have been using the service, has been very reliable ... up until March 3rd. After that, the one server sm1, has been melted down. For a short time, we had it back, with questionable numbers, and then it went down hard, after that. I am greatful that I have had a backup for my blogs and sites, so I have still been able to monitor traffic.

Rena Riffel

A newsgroup that I had not looked at for six months, as it had gone "all spam", now has some celebrity pics being posted. One of the subjects was Rena Riffel, who I did not know. Her big splash was more in the past, but she was nice (and maybe still is). She had credits for movies such as "Showgirl" and "Striptease".

Bill Dyer on Megan McArdle and "Global Warming"

Bill Dyer has a sensible piece about Megan McArdle's comments about "Global Warming", at Instapundit:

And precisely because Megan's own professional expertise is, broadly speaking, the value of the ranch which is being bet (economics), I'm surprised that she's willing to, either. She writes: "I think America needs a whopping big carbon tax (and am braced for the flood of mail I know this declaration will trigger)." Oy. Count me as whoppingly-bigtime opposed. But I do generally agree with her observations about the unlikelihood of political solutions to the problem, if there indeed is one.

The old, smaller, Paris Hilton "hanging out"

Paris Hilton has reportedly had breast enlargement surgery. This is a pic of the original equipment "hanging out".

More proof of Global Warming

Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen had to give up their trip to the pole due to the extreme cold weather. They had hoped that they would be able to show the effects of global warming. They had taken along wetsuits, thinking that they might have to swim across the thawed patches. Good old MPR has the story.

How about a little Liv Tyler, just hanging out

This is a rather artsy, but nice, pic of Liv Tyler, with one breast uncovered (hanging out).

Yes, Nicole Kidman is hot

Nicole Kidman may be aging, but she is definitely hot. This is from Nicole-Kidman.com.

The SiteMeter sm1 server has melted down again

SiteMeter may have redirected the sm1 accounts to a new server, but we are back into meltdown. I am increasingly glad that I have IndexTools as an alternative tracking service. I have Google Analytics, but I have no confidence in the numbers.

Yes, Katherine Heigl is nice

While I liked Katherine Heigl as a child starlet, she is nice, grown up. She seems like to show off her ample cleavage. "Steve and Vicki in the Morning", on Star 94, have the pic.

They don't take this sort of thing as seriously in Ohio as they do in Texas

I see that the former bandleader who was messing around with an underage girl might expect to get five years and a designation as a sex offender. In Texas, they take this sort of thing much more seriously, and the guy would get a lot more years than that. I can't understand why the guy would take such a risk. I hope it was worth it. It seems pretty stupid, though.

A white guy who had sex with an underage white girl

The Canton Repository has a story about this hapless former band director who was said to have had sex with an underage girl in the last year. My theory is, based on knowledge, that only white guys who have sex with underage girls are prosecuted. This is a very nasty thing to say, but a 15 year-old daughter of a relative of mine became pregnant by a black guy in the early 1980's. She lived in the Detroit area. This guy apparently was working on a program to get as many underage white girls pregnant as he could. He was doing it partly because he could and partly because it was good fun. Moving forward in time, when I was working in Memphis from 1996 until 1998, I was amazed to see that at a nearby Burger King, carloads of black guys would drive through the line and underage white girls, who had been waiting nearby, would hop and and drive off with them. You tell me what they were going to do. I have also spent time working in Minneapolis. It was Minneapolis, which in the 1980's, was notorious for having a situation where mostly blonde, 14 and 15 year old girls were providing sexual favors to black guys, in exchange for money or drugs. The area has a large mixed race population, so this must have been widespread. If you go to Brooklyn Center and to north Minneapolis, you see many couples (certainly a different proposition from what I am talking about) where the guy was black and the woman or girl was white. Half the time woman was very overweight. The other half of the time, the woman was a raving beauty. I only have experience there from 2001 to 2004, so I can't talk authoritatively about what is happening right now. My point is that men, thirty years old and up are prosecuted aggressively and put away for 25 years to life (perhaps I am exaggerating a bit) while youngish black guys are doing things with underage white girls of the same sort, with impunity. It says something about the present state of politics, I suspect. I am sorry for dealing with such a nasty topic, and my point of view is pretty bad, but it is what I have seen. Show me that things are different than I think.

ViewImages has Jody Gibson pics, many dating from 2000

ViewImages.com is a goofy place, as you cannot link directly to their images. Still, they do have some Jody Gibson pics dating from 2000, when she was prosecuted for her activities that included providing services to celebrities.

A nasty feature of the Internet is that content vanishes

I find that the fact that content vanishes from the Internet over time is particularly nasty. The online editions of newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times, are the biggest offenders. The pics of Jody Gibson are largely gone, so I will be faced with having to host them myself, potentially, although that is undersirable, as well.

Bad news for Nortel

Nortel didn't need this sort of news: "SEC files fraud charges against former Nortel execs". I suspect that they were probably doing what everyone did in the 1990's, but I could be wrong.

Heather Mills

Natalie Clarke has a "fun" article about Heather Mills at the Daily Mail. Natalie points out the many loose associations between Heather Mills and facts.

More over-reaction

The Right On blog has the Armani Junior pic that some see as objectionable. Those that see this as "child porn" have lost their senses. The blogger says: "Honestly for someone to see a photo like this and derive any sexuality from it, would cause me to call into question THEIR mental health.". Perhaps, we have to put them all in burqas with eye slits.

Patty Smith on being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

I have long been an admirer of Patty Smith and her work. She has an op-ed piece in the New York Times about being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. MSNBC has a pic from 2002. I suspect that she has not aged gracefully. She was formerly pretty "hot stuff" (although exotic).

When Paul McCartney gave Heather Mills a cash infusion, I wondered if a settlement was near

Rumour has it that Heather Mills will accept a divorce settlement from Paul McCartney of about £29 million. Borkowski Celebrity has a short piece, and says that Heather has caved on all of her demands. She must need the money to support the lifestyle she wants to have.

Computer hell

I just had to reboot my computer at work, as it "melted down". Meltdowns happen all too often, as this is a Windows 2000 machine that is "locked down" to the point that I cannot even adjust virtual memory. That and the fact that I am forced to use IE6 is sufficient to cause these cases where virtual memory is exhausted. I had the Eclipse IDE up, and it crashed first, with an SWT error. I then had my two copies of IE6 spontaneously combust. At that point, I gave up and rebooted. Just to make things more difficult, they have a very aggressive firewall, set to greatly restrict what can be seen on the web. For example, to bring up Gmail, I have to click on 17 dialog boxes. It is a bother, but otherwise, it is a good place to be consulting.

A racy pic of Katherine Heigl as a child

There is this pic of the young movie starlet, Katherine Heigl, that is almost an "upskirt" shot:

After that, I was surprised to see this pic that is suggestive of Katherine Heigl, as a child, being naked. This is all thanks to childstartlets.com.

A fairly long article about Antonella Barba's situation

We hear that Antonella Barba has been approached about a number of opportunities, including a Playboy photo shoot. Here is a rather long article about her and her situation, post American Idol.

Reasons to like GigaNews

One big reason to like GigaNews is that if you use a news reader that supports SSL, there is a GigaNews level of service that has SSL. That way, on one can snoop what you are doing on UseNet. Other positive features of GigaNews is that they have a long retention time and have a good number of binary groups.

A word to the wise...

If you are subscribing to binary newsgroups, you are wasting your time to subscribe to groups with a few thousand or fewer messages. The groups that have tens of thousands are likely to be what you want. Also, when you first subscribe to a group, look to see if there is anything besides spam. While spam can be acceptable, if the content is interesting, the best groups have non-spammer active posters.

Looking for News Groups? Look where the spammers are spamming

Let's say that you are not sure what binary newsgroups are active for your topic. One answer to look at the list of groups that spammers are spamming (this assumes that you know of at least one active group for your topic).

UseNet hell: when you realize that your news provider must be censoring binary newgroups

I have been a subscriber to GigaNews for at least 3 years. I finally hit bottom with them. I will continue with them, at least for now, but I just joined ThunderNews, and I immediately found that groups that had gone missing were there. And GigaNews is well known and respected, so what is the deal? I suppose that since they are based in Texas (I think), they are under pressure to have some restrictions.

The "300"

We admire brave men, and that is why the fight at Thermopylae (480 BC) is remembered to this day, even though we are almost 2,500 years later. The movie, the "300" is notable for more than just the story, but because the source was an artistically-illustrated comic book series.

Weight Watchers Update: I was down 1.4lbs today

My weight loss is really starting to add up: I am down a total of 51.4lbs since the last Saturday in February 2006. When I weighed in today, I was down 1.4lbs since I last weighed. I continue to follow the Weight Watchers Flex Plan.

A nice Katherine Heigl pic

ClaudePate.com had this nice Katherine Heigl pic.

I had better luck finding Megan McArdle pics with Bloglines

I struck out with Google, Google Image Search, and Yahoo Image Search, when I tried to find more Megan McArdle pics. I found them with Bloglines, oddly enough. Here is one that is flattering. Here is another. That is Megan on the left.

Razib has a flattering Megan McArdle pic

Although the pic is marred by overwritting, this is still a nice pic of Megan McArdle, now with the Economist. I looked to see if I could find the original, but failed so far.

Dutch girls at a Glamour event

An actual 350m run was held in Amsterdam, but there were also other aspects to the event, staged by Glamour magazine. Here is a pic of Dutch girls. Here are the runners.

Antonella Barba and friends

Here is a pic of Antonella Barba and her topless friends.

SiteMeter appears to be using page views instead of visits for this blog

Since SiteMeter had their big outage, starting early on Saturday, I started comparing IndexTools with SiteMeter. My other blogs and websites look normal, except for one static site where I must not have SiteMeter applied to every page. IndexTools is giving considerably higher traffic figures than SiteMeter.

The Atkins Diet

I have personal experience with the Atkins diet, as I had lost 50 lbs in 1999, by eating low-carb. A new study, which is discussed in an article at HealthNewsDigest, discusses the study. The study, which lasted a year, showed that the Atkins diet worked faster than the alternatives, and had better, short-term health effects. My main issue with the Atkins diet is that you cannot deviate from low-carb, or you are in trouble.

We hear that Heather Mills was assaulted by the photographer, while we had heard that she had assaulted him

I see now that a photographer is being charged with assaulting Heather Mills, while at the time the incident happened, we were hearing that she assaulted him. Of course, she draws negative, unsympathetic coverage, because Paul McCartney can do not wrong, while she can do nothing right. SkyNews has the story.

More "proof of global warming"

The Toronto Star has a story about the weather in February. Joe Soucheray, from KSTP in Minneapolis would say "more proof of global warming".

ABC reports that Lisa Nowak had seen emails and that "set her off"

Lisa Nowak had a key to her boyfriend's apartment in Houston, and when she went there, she snooped and found "steamy emails" from Colleen Shipman to Bill Oefelein. ABC has the scoop. Lisa printed the emails and took them to Florida so that she could confront Colleen Shipman about them. Old Bill had been "two-timing" Lisa, as we used to say. Apparently, being a shuttle pilot can get you lots of decent-looking women who want to have sex.

Patrick Fitzgerald got his "scalp": Scooter Libby was found guilty

The entire purpose of the Valerie Plame investigation was to find someone guilty from the Bush Whitehouse over the so-called "disclosure" of Valerie Plame's role in sending her husband to Niger to investigate the "Yellow Cake" story. Since no crime was committed, Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, had to find a way to get someone, so he charged I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby with perjury. The jury just convicted Libby on four of five counts, so Fitzgerald will have earned "points" with the lefties. Ann Althouse has a post on the announcement.

SiteMeter contines to be in a major meltdown

SiteMeter is the traffic tracking tool of choice for the Blogosphere, and is used by the Blogosphere Ecosystem set up by "NZ Bear", at "The Truth Laid Bear". However, since Saturday, at least one of their servers had been totally out, and this affects three of my blogs. I am not the only one, because of the people I read, Karol Sheinen, at Alarming News, has been affected, as well. Mac VerStandig, at The Right Side of the Road talks about that and more. I see now something on the Site Meter Weblog about what is happening.

A flattering pic of Ann Coulter, hated by left and right

Ann Coulter can look either very bad or can look quite nice. This is a flattering pic of her pointed out by Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer. Ann has been frequently described as a "bomb thrower".

This is good news for people like me

I just read Daniel Drezner's latest post about the job market, and what he had to say is good news for people like me. I have been consulting for 15 years, now, and I was pleased to read this:

New data from the Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development show the number of non-farm jobs in the state increased 1.2 percent since the start of 2006. At the same time, employment grew 3.7 percent in computer systems design, 4.5 percent in technology management and consulting, and 4.9 percent in research and development, fields encompassing many of the employees being snapped up by Internet companies. "The hiring market is tougher than it's been since 1999 or 2000," said Folz, recalling the last boom.

The SiteMeter server for three of my blogs is still hosed

I really am glad that I have IndexTools, so that I can still get the current tracking information about Former Naval Person and two other blogs that are on the sm1 SiteMeter server. The server still is down, apparently. This is the biggest meltdown that I have seen in my almost three years of using SiteMeter. From IndexTools, I know that Former Naval Person had 1,360 visitors and 1,975 page views for yesterday.

My mother made a joke

My mother is 83, and was a liberal Republican who has switched to the Democrats. Her sister, my aunt, is a notorious leftist protestor in eastern Michigan. My mother still lives in southwestern Michigan, where they were getting a heavy snowstorm, yesterday. She told me that they still have the original snow of the season on the ground, as it never got warm enough to melt it. She told me "Al Gore was right: we need to do something about global warming" (get some of it, and soon).

News.com.au says that Britney Spears tried to hang herself in rehab

The Britney Spears story keeps getting more bizarre. We can only hope that she doesn't succeed in hurting herself. News.com.au has the story about her attempted suicide in rehab, by trying to hang herself with a bedsheet.

Sitemeter is having problems, today

I was worried at the low figures that I could see in Sitemeter, when I could reach the server for Former Naval Person. I checked IndexTools, which I also use, and traffic is normal for the day, so this is just a SiteMeter issue.

Will "Joost" replace YouTube?

Perhaps "Joost" is trying to play in a different market than YouTube. Offering TV over the Internet is an interesting idea, if it can fly. It probably will have bad effects on the Internet, though. Our hope someone will come along and offer uncensored video clips, in the way that YouTube USED TO HAVE.

With YouTube censoring what it allows to be seen, there is room for a replacement

YouTube has gotten much worse, because after being bought by Google, which is a big censorer of Internet content, YouTube is censoring what is shown. Everyone who threatens them, because of content posted, gets their attention, and the content is withdrawn. While YouTube is in decline, this leaves the market open for some company that can stand up to pressures for censorship. They will have to find a way to deal with copyrighted content, as that is a huge issue that has negatively affected Google Book Search, as well.

I was apparently the last person in the world to see the Keeley Hazell "sex tape" flash video

I am typically slow to get the word. Weeks after everyone else in the world had seen the Keeley Hazell "Sex Tape" Flash video, I only just now saw it at "Right Thoughts".

Sleepy John has the big Antonella Barba BJ pics

The Sleepy John blog has linked the big Antonella Barba BJ pics, without censoring or watermarks. Here is one and this is the other.

More Lisa Nowak

From seeing a gallery at the Orlando Sentinel, of Lisa Nowak pics, the astronaut and Navy captain, there are a number of things that are evident. One, she is prettier than Colleen Shipman, who is rather exotic, as she has an extremely long neck. Her main advantage is her age, which is 30, while Lisa Nowak is over 40. Another is that Lisa Nowak's husband is rather goofy, and very overweight. He set himself up for trouble, as Lisa is slender and in shape, as well as quite pretty, although not movie star material. Some photos show Lisa in a better angle than others.

Another pic of the PETA woman protestor

Here is another pic of the PETA woman protestor. This is the shot showing the whole scene.

Valerie Plame at the Oscars: "showing off"

Wuzzadem has a (year old) pic of Valerie Plame at the Oscars, doing what I call "showing off" (what she has).

A little Friday morning fun: a naked woman on a PETA protest in Paris

Just to lighten things up on a Friday morning (what I am needing) is a pic of a naked woman protesting in Paris for PETA. Here is a better pic of the woman.

A sort of fantasy Britney and Paris Hilton pic

This is an assembled pic, using Britney Spears and Paris Hilton pics, and is quite arty and shows them off at their best.

This is starting out like a really bad day on the stock markets

Already, at 8:35am CST, the Dow is down 200 points and the NASDAQ id down over 50 points. This is shaping up to be another really bad day on the market. The question is "why?"